When police entered Carl Patrick's Pembroke Pines home last week, they found the Miami police officer's body wrapped in a bedsheet and comforter, with only his feet uncovered.
His right foot had a sock on. His left foot was bare. Blood was splattered on the wall and a door frame. A semi-automatic weapon was on the ground next to his body.
The search, authorized after a judge signed a warrant last week that allowed police entry into Patrick's home sheds new light on the mystery of the Miami police officer's death. Girlfriend Tiniko Thompson said the death was self-inflicted and accidental, but Pines police are calling it a homicide.
The warrant, obtained by Miami Herald news partner CBS 4, clearly shows police quickly identifying Thompson, a Miami police public service aide, as a suspect. They took DNA samples from her purse, cellphone, prescription bottles and shorts, the warrant says.
The report says police were called to Patrick's home on the afternoon of May 9 by Thompson's mother, Anne Braddy, who said her daughter was threatening suicide. But when police arrived at the home she shared with Patrick at 2180 NW 93rd Ave., in Pembroke Pines, no one was there.
Police found Thompson later at her mother's Opa-locka home, the report says -- and she wasn't talking.
"I invoke my rights. ... I will not answer any questions without my attorney present," the warrant says she told Opa-locka police officers. Officers trying to persuade Thompson to speak with them observed cuts and abrasions on her body.
The warrant says neighbors saw Thompson pull into her mother's driveway around 3 p.m. May 7, wearing a shirt with blood near her chest.
Thompson was more forthcoming earlier this week when she spoke publicly about her boyfriend's death, with attorney Rod Vereen at her side. She said the incident actually took place two days before Patrick's body was found. Thompson called the shooting "accidental," saying that Patrick picked up a gun on his bedside dresser, struggled with her over the gun, and slipped, shooting himself.
Early in the case, Pembroke Pines police called the shooting a homicide, "as a result of a gunshot wound."
The shooting happened on a Wednesday morning, May 7, Thompson said. She said she was so distraught that she got in Patrick's black BMW and drove around, sleeping under a bridge for two days until she informed family members of the incident.
But even that comes into question in the search warrant.
The warrant shows police uncovered video surveillance of Thompson entering unit 3069 at the Value Store storage facility at 901 North Miami Beach Blvd., eight times on the day Patrick died, and three times the next day.
Miami Herald news partner CBS 4 got a copy of surveillance video at the storage facility, which shows her entering at noon on the day of her boyfriend's death. It shows she got there in Patrick's black BMW and unloaded a stroller, some bags and a baby's crib in a box.
At one point, with the help of storage employees, she placed the items onto a dolly and wheeled them upstairs. She was captured returning the next day, May 8, talking on a cellphone. The facility's manager told CBS 4 that he noticed baby items in Thompson's storage unit, which she has had since October.
Vereen, Thompson's attorney, said his client miscarried Patrick's child last summer. The search warrant says "it is believed that Thompson is pregnant with the victim's child."
Vereen did not return repeated phone calls Friday.
The body of Patrick, 52, who patrolled Miami's North District, was discovered the afternoon of May 9 after calls from Braddy and Patrick's 86-year-old mother Lucille Patrick -- who was concerned her son hadn't returned a call in several days.
Miami police said Patrick -- an Honor Guard with the city who attended Miami's Central High and served Army tours in Japan and Afghanistan -- missed several days of work before his body was discovered, and that someone had called in sick for him. They're looking into who made the calls.
Service aide Thompson, who has a clean record with the city, had been absent from work since January, Miami police said. She used up all her family leave and sick time to cover her absence.
Miami police union President Javier Ortiz said Patrick was found in uniform, his lunchbox and work computer in his patrol vehicle outside the home, an indication he was on his way to work when he died.
Pembroke Pines police, the lead investigative unit in Patrick's death, have said little about the incident, although they did respond after Thompson spoke with the media last week, saying they'd like to have a chance to speak with her.
She has refused their offer so far.
Pines Police Capt. Al Xiques refused to call Thompson the lead suspect in her boyfriend's death, saying detectives are following every possible lead. He said Thompson has refused to cooperate.
"They're not limiting the scope of their investigation," Xiques said.
Patrick will be laid to rest Saturday in a line-of-duty ceremony that will include a 21-gun salute and flyovers by police helicopters. The funeral will begin at 1 p.m. at Trinity Church, 17801 NW Second Ave., Miami Gardens. From there, the procession will move to Dade Memorial Park, 1301 Opa-locka Blvd.
Copyright 2014 - The Miami Herald
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
