It’s Tuesday, March 15th - and NBC 6 has the top stories for the day.
No. 1 - Newly-released police body camera video shows a rough arrest of a woman that led to two Miami officers resigning and a review by the city's Citizen Investigative Panel.
The panel on Tuesday will review the video, which shows the Nov. 27, 2020 encounter with the 20-year-old woman. The woman is heard cursing at an officer as she walks away from the scene, before the officer becomes upset that she spit on his car. After the officer told the woman to clean the spit off her car she refused, another officer arrives and the woman is taken into custody. But as she's sitting in the back seat of a police vehicle handcuffed, she spits in the officer's face, and he grabs her neck with both hands and throws her to the ground. An internal affairs investigation upheld the woman's complaints of excessive force and improper procedure. Both officers resigned from the department in 2021.
No. 2 - Detectives found traces of fentanyl at a home in Broward County after four men were hospitalized Sunday night due to having difficulty breathing, officials said.
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Broward Sheriff's Office Fire Rescue crews responded after 6 p.m. to the home in the 1600 block of SW 40th Terrace, near the intersection of Davie Boulevard and U.S. 441 in unincorporated Broward County. Officials said two of the men were not breathing at the scene and were hospitalized with life-threatening injuries. Two other men were also hospitalized after having shortness of breath. Officials said three of the men have been released from the hospital. One remains hospitalized, and his condition was unknown. It came after an Army football player and West Point cadets on spring break were hospitalized Thursday after overdosing on fentanyl at a vacation rental in Wilton Manors. Axel Giovany Casseus, 21, was arrested in connection with the case and faces a cocaine trafficking charge.
No. 3 - A large group of around 150 Haitian migrants made landfall in the Florida Keys Monday morning, officials said.
The migrants came ashore on Summerland Key, Monroe County Sheriff's Office officials said. Photos released by the sheriff's office showed the migrants on the shoreline near a home, as well as the small boat they arrived on. Officials said U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers were responding to the scene. The incident comes just days after a group of about 300 migrants on an overloaded boat arrived in the Keys, with 163 of them swimming to shore.
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No. 4 - It’s been nearly nine months since the building collapse in Surfside killed 98 people. Florida lawmakers promised they would pass reforms to prevent something similar from happening but they couldn’t make a deal.
A disagreement between the House and Senate over money eliminated a bipartisan bill from passing. Lawmakers couldn’t agree on how much money condo associations needed to have in back up to pay for maintenance and repairs and when they needed to have it. Victim families can’t understand why nothing will be done. The last few months have been heartbreaking for Martin Langesfeld, who lost his older sister and brother-in-law in the collapse. He heard the news over the weekend and couldn’t believe it: lawmakers will not pass any new reforms to try and prevent another collapse from happening. Click here for his words in a report from NBC 6 investigator Phil Prazan.
No. 5 - Two weeks ago, we told you about the connection between a high school kid who lives in northeast Miami-Dade County, Ryan Cotzen, and a teenager in Ukraine, Alex (to guard against reprisal, we are not using his last name.)
Ryan’s been tutoring Alex in English for about a year, and now Alex knows the English words to describe what it’s like to flee a war zone, leaving everything behind, including his father. Alex went from a normal teenager’s life in Bakhmut, Ukraine, to a refugee in two weeks. As Alex and his brother try to adjust to Germany, saying they’re determined to learn the language and go to school there, Alex says his mom can’t stop crying about their situation, about her husband, about the destruction of their country. Click here for more in a report from NBC 6’s Ari Odzer.
No. 6 - Employees of a Starbucks in Miami Springs are joining the push to unionize.
This location, located at 52 Curtiss Parkway, would be the second in South Florida to file with the National Labor Relations Board to start the unionization process. In February, employees at a Starbucks in Hialeah formally filed for an election with the NLRB. The employees want to unionize to resolve issues such as low wages, benefits and overworked baristas. Shift supervisor Shawn Pardillo says it’s the customers who suffer when the issues workers face aren’t resolved. Click here to find out why in a report from NBC 6’s Julie Leonardi.
