The girlfriend of slain Miami Police Officer Carl Patrick has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in his death last month, in a shooting she insists was an accident while she tried to defend herself in a fight.
A lawyer for Tiniko Thompson, 46, entered the written plea during a brief court appearance Thursday morning. She remains behind bars without bond.
Thompson was arrested last month, 19 days after Patrick's body was found in his Pembroke Pines home.
Officers found his body in the bedroom on May 9, after he failed to show up for work three days in a row, according to an arrest affidavit. Officers had been called to the home after Thompson's mother called police to report that Thompson was threatening suicide, the affidavit said.
Patrick had a gunshot wound to his shoulder area, and a gun was found near his body, the affidavit said. According to the affadavit, a note was found on the kitchen table that read: "It was an accident, we had a fight."
A medical examiner later determined that Patrick hadn't suffered an incapacitating wound, and said the injury would have been survivable had Patrick received medical assistance, the affidavit said. But Thompson, who took Patrick's cellphone, his sole means of calling for assistance, made no calls, the affidavit said.
A few days after the body was found, Thompson sat next to her attorney and spoke exclusively to NBC 6 to give her version of what happened, saying Patrick had attacked her and pulled a weapon on her.
“He scared me. I don’t know what else to say,” Thompson said. “He scared me. I feared for my life, and I held on, and we struggled, because I wasn’t going to let go.”
“He slipped and he fell, and I was still backed up into a corner, and we’re still tussling with the gun. And at that moment he is turning this way and it went ‘POW!’ And that was it," Thompson continued.
Thompson, who said she was living with Patrick, says she left the home after the shooting and slept in her car until her mother called police.
According to the affidavit, Pembroke Pines Police reviewed the footage of Thompson's interview with NBC 6 after serving a subpoena. Thompson's account of Patrick's death conflicted with the evidence recovered at the scene and the medical examiner's report, the affidavit said.
Thompson's next court appearance is scheduled for August.
