New Details Murk the Waters of 2nd Cop Shooting
Police release new video and 911 audio tapes
By CARLOS MILLER
Updated 9:52 PM EDT, Sun, Aug 2, 2009
More details are emerging about the two deadly shootings involving the same Miami Beach police officer.
Now the latest is that police are unable to confirm whether or not the second shooting victim had a gun when police riddled his body with bullets.
Initially, police were saying that Lawrence McCoy was killed in a blazing gun battle with officers after pistol-whipping a cab driver and stealing his car.
But now police are saying that they recovered a gun in the waters off the MacArthur Causeway that may have been his. McCoy was shot between 9 to 11 times.
The new revelations were acknowledged during a press conference on Thursday in which Miami Beach Police Chief Carlos Noriega tried to justify the actions of the police officers in both shootings.
Police also released a new surveillance video relating to the first shooting as well as 911 dispatch tapes relating to both shootings. The tapes can be heard by clicking on the second and third icons on the left-hand side.
Noriega also acknowledged that at least two others were involved in the McCoy shooting, including a retired police officer and a civilian employee from the Miami Beach Police Department.
But he did not say how retired officer Steven Stuart or police service specialist Gisela Tacao were involved. He only confirmed that Tacao has been placed on leave without pay until further notice.
Adam Tavss, the officer involved in both shootings, is currently assigned to desk duty as is Frank Celestre, who was only involved in the second shooting.
The new surveillance video, which was obtained from a supermarket on Washington Avenue, shows two men walking down the street, one appearing to have a large object tucked under his shirt. Those two men are believed to be Husien and his brother, Samer Shehada.
It is not clear whether Husien is the one with the object under his shirt, but neither men turned out to have guns.
While police won’t make any official statements about what the object was, sources from within the department have stated that it was a wooden coat hanger. They have also stated that the other man was carrying a bottle.
The 911 tapes reveal that one man called police reporting a fight in which three men “beat the crap” out of a single man. The unidentified caller stated he did not see any guns.
However, a second caller reported that a man fitting the description of the brothers was packing a machine gun under his shirt.
“One of them had the machine gun on his left side,” the caller reported.
The dispatcher put out a “be on the lookout” for two Hispanic men in white t-shirts between 25-30 years of age, one of them packing a machine gun.
And in a phone conversation between an officer and a dispatcher, the officer said he was flagged down by a person reporting that two men fitting this same description were walking around with “two pistols,” including an “AK-47.”
When seven police officers eventually confronted the two men, Tavss fired at least two rounds, killing Husien Shehada.
In the 911 dispatch calls from the second incident, several callers reported the carjacking that occurred in front of Monty Trainer’s on Alton Road and 4th Street. The cab driver can be heard saying he was hit over the head with something, possibly a gun.
First Published: Jul 2, 2009 6:00 PM EDT
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