A Miami Police officer will not be charged for fatally shooting a man after prosecutors decided the officer feared the man was reaching for a weapon, The Miami Herald reported.
Prosecutors ruled in a final report Wednesday that Officer Reinaldo Goyo was justified in shooting 28-year-old Travis McNeil.
Police said McNeil, who was unarmed, was pursued and pulled over for a traffic violation in Little Haiti and appeared to be reaching for something, the newspaper reported. Other officers on the scene said McNeil ignored commands to show his hands.
Click here to read about another police-involved shooting.
Kareem Williams, 30, who was a passenger in the vehicle, was also shot by officers, but survived.
Investigation into the incident led prosecutors to believe that McNeil was reaching for a cell phone that fell, according to the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office.
The State Attorney's Office said Goyo would not be convicted of manslaughter because he had “reasonable fear that Mr. McNeil was reaching for a weapon.”
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This shooting and several others in Miami angered inner-city activists and led then-Commissioner Richard Dunn to call for the ousting of Police Chief Miguel Exposito, the Herald said.
Exposito was fired in September for disobeying orders from the city manager but is appealing the decision.
