Bodycam Shows Miami Officer on Ground as Another Shoots Suspect

By Charles Rabin

Source Miami Herald

Video of a deadly traffic stop near Northwestern Senior High School last month captures a Miami police officer calling out “gun” during a pat-down search of Antwon Leonard Cooper, but never shows Cooper holding a weapon before he was shot to death by another officer.

Cooper’s family has hired an attorney and intends to file a lawsuit, arguing that the shooting was unjustified and that he never threatened officers. While videos released by Miami police over the weekend do not show Cooper brandishing a gun, they did record a chaotic scuffle between Cooper and an officer just before the shooting.

At one point, one officer is on his back grabbing Cooper by a cap covering his lengthy dreadlocks to stop him from running — a scene captured by a body-worn camera that had been dislodged from the officer’s shirt and was lying on the ground but continuing to record.

It’s during that 10-second tussle that another officer gets to the scene and fires a single bullet that kills Cooper. The shooting is not seen clearly on the video, but the sound of gunfire is distinct. After the shooting, a Sigfried Armory handgun is shown on the ground about 15 feet away.

Cooper, 34, was killed on March 9 after a traffic stop at Northwest 71st Street and 10th Avenue, just outside of Northwestern High. An officer pulled him over because the temporary tag on the red Nissan Altima he was driving had expired.

Though Miami police and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which investigates all police shootings, have met with Cooper’s family members, the agencies haven’t commented on details of the encounter.

Family members expressed outrage after viewing the video. They hired attorneys Rawsi Williams and Frank T. Allen, who said they will file a civil rights wrongful death lawsuit in state and federal court after notifying the parties, a legal requirement they said will take about five months. The president of Miami-Dade’s NAACP chapter also said her agency is monitoring the investigation.

Cooper had a lengthy history of arrests and convictions, with charges ranging from grand theft auto to armed burglary and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. He has served prison time and was awaiting trial for a 2021 misdemeanor petty theft charge for driving with a stolen tag.

Allen, the family attorney, said there was no reason for the officer to shoot Cooper during the traffic stop.

“He [Cooper] wasn’t brandishing a weapon, or pointing one. He wasn’t punching or kicking or hitting. He was pulling away trying to free himself,” said the attorney.

Facing the media two weeks ago, Helen Bryant said her grandson was shot like “some kind of animal.”

“You know, my heart is just aching right now. I want him [the officer] accounted for, locked up and in prison. Not jail, in prison. I can’t hug him [Cooper] no more and I can’t see him no more,” she said.

Though police have not publicly named the officer who shot Cooper, law enforcement sources have confirmed it was Constant Rosemond, a veteran officer who works the city’s north end and who once worked overseas for the United Nations and served as a police officer with Miami-Dade Schools Police.

The video, which is remarkably clear until the 10-second struggle that ended Cooper’s life, shows the officer driving to the scene, then approaching Cooper on the driver’s side of the Altima. He asks, “boss man, you got a license?” Cooper says he doesn’t. He then offers the cop another form of identification. There is another man in the passenger seat but he does not get involved in the scuffle about to ensue.

The officer asks Cooper if he has any weapons. Cooper says no, then shows him the inside of a bag. The officer then tells Cooper to step outside the vehicle. He quickly pats down his right side. But when he touches Cooper’s left side, the officer calls out “gun” and Cooper tries to take off.

The next 10 seconds are hard to follow on the video, but Cooper is upright and appears trying to escape the grasp of the officer, who is on his back clutching Cooper by the stocking cap covering his dreadlocks. Then there is the clear sound of a single round of gunfire. Another surveillance video taken from an entrance at Northwestern shows Rosemond pulling up about 20 feet behind the Altima and parking before running toward the scene on the driver’s side of the car. The shooting isn’t clear on that video, either.

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