The incident occurred on Tuesday night, and video from the police body of the meeting was circulating on social networks. The strike was “excessive use of force,” county mayor Carlos Giménez told CNN.
The officer, identified by his department as Anthony Rodríguez, answered a call about a woman who was upset with ticket agents after she missed her flight, Giménez said.
The officer said in an arrest affidavit that he hit Paris Sharon Anderson only after she bumped into him and hit her head on the chin while trying to persuade her to move on.
Anderson, 21, of Miami, was arrested on initial charges of assault against a police officer, a felony and disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor.
MDPD said Thursday that Rodríguez would be fired. “The MDPD is responsible for its actions, and this is just another example of our commitment to do just that,” said MDPD director Alfredo Ramírez III.
Giménez called the officer’s hit on Anderson a “hit.” A representative from a union of police officers told the Miami Herald that it was “a slap with open hands,” and that the woman had pushed her face toward the officer’s face while he asked him to leave.
CNN’s attempts to reach out to Anderson and the union for comment were not immediately successful.
Woman arrested at the airport
The video seen by CNN does not show the entire meeting. The clip begins with Anderson talking to Rodriguez, standing near him and at least one other officer in a terminal building.
The affidavit states that three officers onstage carried body cameras, but CNN has only seen one video.
“You (are) acting like you Black,” Anderson tells Rodriguez, before apparently correcting himself: “You (are) acting like you White when you really are Black.” Rodríguez speaks to him, but it is not clear from the recording what he is saying.
Anderson finally approaches Rodriguez. Speaking right in front of her face, she says, “What (are you going to do)?”
Rodríguez then moves his right hand towards his face, a video shows. She stumbles back, and the officer steps forward and catches up with her. The video is shaky after that. A man can be heard saying, “He hit my head” while the woman is taken into custody. It is not clear from the video whether the woman’s face made contact with the officer at any time.
In the affidavit, Rodríguez wrote that Anderson hit him with his body and hit him “with his head on his chin.”
He also wrote that he “immediately stepped back” before hitting her. Although the video shows her moving one of her feet, it is not clear if she takes a step.
It is unclear why she mentions race. She is black. Details about Rodríguez’s career were not immediately released.
Officers had to grab her by force and keep her face pointed forward to prevent her from spitting it out, the affidavit says.
Anderson complained of shortness of breath after being taken to a police station, but she refused treatment, the affidavit says, before being taken to the county jail. Details on whether she was injured were not immediately available.
Anderson posted bail of $ 5,550, a court clerk said Thursday. A court date is scheduled for July 30. She did not have an attorney listed in court.
Police director ‘shocked and angry’
The director of the Miami-Dade Police Department said he ordered that Rodriguez be relieved of duty.
Director Alfredo “Freddy” Ramírez III said he was “shocked and angry” by the video, and said: “This will not continue.”
“Actions like these undermine the hard work we have invested in our community and make my heart break for our community and for the vast majority of our officers who dedicate their lives to serving our county,” Ramírez said in a statement Wednesday. published. On twitter.
Ramírez said he asked the state attorney’s office in the county to help him investigate the case.
Rodríguez was relieved of his duties, police department spokesman Detective Álvaro Zabaleta said Thursday.
Giménez, the mayor, said Thursday that “what he saw in the video was” unnecessary “, and hopes that further action will be taken against the officer later in the day.
County state attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle said Thursday that her prosecutors were “gathering the body camera evidence and the witness / victim testimony.”
“Like many in our community, I get angry when I see abusive or inappropriate behavior by a police officer,” says Rundle’s statement.
The woman had missed the flight, says the affidavit.
The incident began after an air ticket agent called police, the mayor said.
A dispatcher told Rodriguez that Anderson was behind a reservation counter, threatening employees. When she arrived, Rodríguez saw her “shouting obscenities” at the workers, Rodríguez wrote in the arrest sworn statement.
According to the affidavit, a supervisor from the service center told Rodríguez that:
• Anderson had been late to his flight and was denied boarding, and was instructed to check in at a reservation desk to be assigned to a different flight.
• He was upset when told that the next available flight to his final destination would not be until the next morning.
• Anderson went behind the counter to retrieve his boarding pass, and when he was told he was not allowed to be there, he allegedly threatened and cursed the employees.
• The supervisor told the woman that she would not travel with the airline now and that the fee would be refunded.
In the affidavit, Rodríguez writes that he later spoke to Anderson and told him that he could find a flight with another provider. She asked her to collect her belongings so that he and another officer could escort her away from the safe side of the airport, the affidavit said.
Anderson “became belligerent and started shouting obscenities” and, referring to the duty supervisor, said, “I should go there and hit him in the face,” the affidavit read.
When Rodríguez again told him to collect his belongings, Anderson “aggressively approached this officer (Rodríguez) in violation of this officer’s personal space, hit this officer with his body and hit this officer with the head on the chin while shouting: ” What are you going to do? do?’ “according to the affidavit.
“This officer immediately stepped back, hit her on the left side of the face with an open hand. (She) tripped back and was then taken to the floor where she was detained,” the states affidavit.
CNN’s Rich Phillips contributed to this report.
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