An officer with the Hollywood Police Department is facing charges for his involvement in a 2021 shooting that left a man paralyzed.
Broward County State Attorney Harold F. Pryor announced Friday that 49-year-old Henry Andrews will be charged with one count of culpable negligence inflicting actual personal injury. He is scheduled to be arraigned by a Broward County court on October 31.
Andrews is being charged for his role in the July 3, 2021 shooting of Michael Ortiz.
Ortiz was having a panic attack at his Hollywood home on July 3, 2021, and called 911 for help. Hollywood Police responded, and instead of aiding him after he was already lying on the floor and handcuffed, an officer shot him in the back — paralyzing him from the waist down.
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It was not said if Andrews was the one who pulled the trigger in the shooting. He is the first officer charged in this case.
Hollywood Police admitted the mistake in a statement in February, saying in part, “As he continued to resist, an officer discharged his firearm, striking Mr. Ortiz once … and initial review suggest the officer intended to deploy his taser, but instead discharged his firearm."
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The Hollywood Police Department has not commented on Andrews' arrest.
“We think the Broward State Attorney should complete the investigation quickly and identify what criminal laws were violated and take swift action against anyone who violated the law," Hunter Shkolnik, one of Ortiz's attorneys, said earlier this year.
The Ortiz family and their lawyers also announced they were going to court in an effort to get the building's surveillance video, which they believe will show if police used excessive and unnecessary force.
NBC 6 found the Ortiz tragedy appears to be the 17th instance in the U.S. where officers who meant to use tasers ended up firing their handguns.
Andrews faces up to one year in jail if convicted.
