Family members of a man who was killed by Miami-Dade police described him as a kind and generous man and were shocked to hear of his deadly tragic encounter with officers.
Ernesto Battle, 73, arrived at his northwest Miami-Dade home around the early afternoon on Sunday after spending the morning with Reinaldo Falcon, a longtime friend.
Falcon said Battle seemed normal that day — the two spent the morning gathering coconuts that they planned to sell.
But on Monday evening, police say Ernesto called 911 and told dispatchers, "If your officers don’t show in the next ten minutes, I will kill someone," and was allegedly holding a rifle.
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Within minutes, officers responded to the corner of NW 114th Street and 17th Avenue.
“They arrived in marked police vehicles. My officer attempted to de-escalate the situation, a conversation was had and the officer provided instructions to disarm and lay the firearm down," said MDPD interim director George Perez.
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Family members say they watched all of it unfold through a home surveillance system and heard police ask him to put the weapon down at least three times. Instead of putting it down, police and family say he pointed it at the officer.
"When I saw him in the camera with the gun in his hand, all I thought is, he's looking for trouble," said family member Mayelin Ortega.
Cellphone video obtained by NBC 6 shows first responders trying to resuscitate Battle to no avail. He died on scene.
The family says in recent years, he battled depression and said he’d grown tired of living. They want the public to know he never threatened them and to remember him for how he lived, and not how he died.
"He didn’t make threats to none of us. Nothing," Ortega said. "We had no issues or threats to nobody."
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the shooting.
