Florida judge dismisses manslaughter charge against deputy who shot man holding air rifle
A Florida judge invoked the state’s “stand your ground” self-defense law Wednesday in dismissing a manslaughter charge against a deputy sheriff who shot and killed a black man carrying a rifle that turned out to be an air gun, the Associated Press and Sun Sentinel report.
Responding to 911 callers reporting a man carrying what might be a shotgun on a busy street during daytime, Deputy Peter Peraza and other deputies ordered 33-year-old Jermaine McBean to drop the weapon. Peraza testified that McBean then pointed it at them, and Peraza shot him three times. The weapon was an air rifle that McBean had just purchased and was carrying home, the Sun Sentinel reports.
Circuit Judge Michael Usan, in a 36-page order, dismissed the charge because he said that the state’s stand-your-ground statute does away with any requirement to retreat from a dire threat. Usan wrote that McBean’s 2013 death was a “tragedy” but that the national debate concerning police officers shooting black people and the backlash against police has “no place in this courtroom concerning this case.”
The ruling came the same day that Baltimore prosecutors dropped charges against three police officers who faced trial in the death of Freddie Gray in a police van ride in 2015.
In Florida, the state attorney’s office said it intends to appeal Judge Usan’s ruling and issued this statement: “We believe, based upon an appellate court decision, that a law enforcement officer is not entitled to a dismissal of the charge based upon the Stand Your Ground Law. While there is conflicting evidence, we feel a jury should resolve these conflicts. We believe that the facts of the case do not support that this was a justifiable homicide.”
The judge wrote in his order, “This case involves the tragic death of one man and the liberty of another. To allow the conflicting agenda of supporters of either side to invade this legal process would be a far greater injustice.”
Deputy Peraza, who is suspended from his job, was the first Florida law enforcement officer in three decades to face charges for shooting someone while on duty.
Testimony and evidence indicated that McBean, who was bipolar and had recently suffered a serious episode, may have been wearing earbuds when he failed to heed the officers’ commands.
“It is (a) complete travesty and miscarriage of justice,” David Schoen, a lawyer for the McBean family, says of the judge’s ruling. “It should have been impossible for any judge to take this case away from a jury.”
Schoen said he will pursue a civil rights case against the sheriff’s office in federal court.
Broward County sheriff did not address the decision and said he hopes the community will heal.
