State Attorney: Jury will look again at case through his Ninth Circuit policy
Ninth Circuit State Attorney Andrew Bain announced early Tuesday evening a grand jury has not charged two Osceola County Sheriff Officers in the death of a 20-year-old man who was shot in a Kissimmee Target parking lot following an alleged shoplifting.
During a press conference on the Osceola County Courthouse steps, Bain noted a new policy requiring all officer-involved deadly shootings be presented to a grand jury, “So that cases don’t sit and linger so our community, and law enforcement and families can move on from tragedy. It’s to provide a timeline, transparency and fairness.”
The case sat, untried, for 11 months under former Ninth Circuit State Attorney Monique Worrell; Bain said he delivered it to a grand jury within three months of taking office after Gov. Ron DeSantis removed her from office.
This week marks 20 months since the April 27, 2022 incident at the West U.S. Highway 192 store that began as an attempted shoplifting arrest and ended with Jayden Baez shot and killed in the parking lot. Passengers Michael Gomez, Joseph Lowe and Ian Joi were left with physical and mental scars, while Osceola County Sheriff Marcos Lopez and his agency has been under scrutiny. Lopez said deputies were conducting unrelated training in another part of the parking lot, and responded when a store loss prevention agent notified police that two males shoplifted $46 worth of Pokemon cards and a pizza, then were observed getting into an Audi. When trying to stop the vehicle to apprehend the suspects, video showed the Audi trying to leave the parking lot, then unmarked police cars with lights on boxed it in. When deputies shot into the car, Baez, the driver, was killed.
The grand jury ultimately did not charge Sheriff’s deputies Scott Koffinas and Ramy Yacoub.
“The jury heard experts, witnesses and evidence to come to their conclusion,” Bain said “My job is to preserve and protect lives and account for lives, and surely not to lose young people to acts of gun violence.”
But, the grand jury will continue to review the case as part of a second “presentment phase” that Assistant State Attorney Ryan Williams said could take “months.”
Bain described his new policy as giving grand juries the opportunity to weigh in on their findings to the community. For example, in this fact, the grand jury will get another opportunity to look again at the case in order to examine law enforcement practices.
William Jay, the chief of the Ninth Circuit’s homicide unit, said: “They have been exposed to the facts of this case and are in the position now to speak as members of the community, to say, ‘These are the things we’ve identified, and for members of law enforcement to come up with better policies if it’s appropriate.’”
Wednesday, Lopez held his own press conference, initially thanking the grand jury for “applying the facts of the law.”
“It’s always tragic when it becomes necessary for law enforcement to apply deadly force,” he said. “Officers place themselves in dangerous situations daily; sometimes deadly force is the only way to protect innocent people from harm and train to make split-second decisions. An officer who uses deadly force appropriately should never, I repeat, never, be treated as a criminal.”
He asserted that it’s a misconception that officers used deadly force because of a petit theft.
“The truth is, deputies used deadly force because their lives were in danger, by a driver who made a bad decision to ignore lawful commands and use his vehicle as a deadly weapon to try to strike deputies. The deputies who fired their weapons had to wait 20 months to be told they were legally doing their jobs.”
But, in the wake of the 2022 incident, Lopez said he welcomed the recommendations of the grand jury’s second look at the case.
“We do have outdated policies that can be improved, and when we run into these critical situations, that’s how we look at them,” he said.
Lopez noted that outfitting sworn officers with body cameras, and reviewing written policies, such as when and how deputies shoot into vehicles, and ordering that “box in” maneuvers for vehicles only be used in felony situations and not misdemeanors.
Attorney Mark NeJame represents Baez’s family and the other victims from the Target shooting. He has filed a civil lawsuit in Osceola County court against Target, as well as a federal lawsuit that says the store officials observed the subjects steal the items via surveillance, but did not approach or apprehend them or direct them to return the stolen goods until they left the store and got into the black Audi Baez was driving.
Instead of making an arrest in or immediately outside the store, “The Osceola County Sheriff Office elected to continue their field training under the direction of supervising law enforcement by using Michael Gomez and Joseph Lowe as human guinea pigs for their training exercises,” as contended in the lawsuit.
“They could have prevented this by (intervening) when leaving the store. We’ve had some questions as it relates to statements and observations of the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office,” NeJame said at Tuesday’s press conference, noting he understands the Department of Justice is investigating the OCSO. “We believe some of their statements are flat-out dishonest and collaborated with each other.
NeJame said some investigative pieces of the case were not brought to the grand jury because, “The state doesn’t have it yet.”
“We are ecstatic to hear that this grand jury has said, ‘It ain’t over yet. They want to find out more. It’s almost impossible to get an indictment against law enforcement. In this particular instance, we believe there has been less-than-truthfulness that was presented to the grand jury – but not by the State Attorney. They could only play cards with the cards dealt to them. We expected this result to come from the grand jury. We did not expect them to say they wanted to get into it more – the procedures, the protocols, the policies, that led to the unnecessary death and maiming of these young people.”
NeJame said this extended look into the matter, and adjoining litigation, will answer a long list of “Why?” questions surrounding what happened at the Target.
“Why conduct training operations with civilians all around?” he asked Tuesday. “Why were they shooting the back window to get the driver when they knew there was a passenger behind him? Why did this unnecessary death happen when it didn’t need to happen?”
“I’ll share with you – I believe it’s the policies, procedures and protocols of Sheriff Lopez and his office. We’re seeing too many things happen too many times in Osceola County. We’re hoping these grand juries put an end to these horrific practices. The leadership of the Sheriff’s Office is deficient and grossly negligent.”
As for NeJame’s criticism of his agency, Lopez called him, “An attorney profiting from deputies being found at fault or negligent.”
He also said that the Department of Justice’s investigation is into a separate matter.
