Florida

‘Stand Your Ground' Case Involving BSO Deputy Heads to Supreme Court

What to Know

  • The Florida Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case of BSO Deputy Peter Peraza, who was charged with the shooting of Jermaine McBean.
  • Peraza, who was the first officer in three decades to be charged with an on-duty shooting, claimed the state’s Stand Your Ground defense.

Hearings before Florida's Supreme Court began Tuesday for the case involving a Broward Sheriff's Office deputy who shot and killed an Oakland Park man almost five years ago and used the state's "stand your ground" law to dismiss the manslaughter charges against him.

The Florida Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case of BSO Deputy Peter Peraza on Tuesday, who was charged with the shooting of Jermaine McBean after responding to a call of a man with a rifle walking down a busy street. Peraza claimed McBean pointed the weapon, which was an air rifle, at deputies before he opened fire.

Inside the courtroom in Tallahassee on Tuesday, the McBean family sat just feet away from Peraza. The justices wasted no time asking tough questions to Peraza's attorney and the state attorney.

"If the legislature intended to exclude police officers from the 'stand your ground' statute, why didn't they say so? They have ample opportunity," Justice Jorge Labarga said.

Peraza, who was the first officer in three decades to be charged with an on-duty shooting in Florida, claimed the state's "stand your ground" defense in the case. Peraza won the case in a lower court, saw it overturned by an appeals court before the Fourth District Court of Appeals reinstated the first decision.

"That sets a precedent definitely for the state of Florida of when 'stand your ground' can be used," Jermaine's brother Andrew McBean said. "If you open the door to 'stand your ground,' every little shooting can easily be called 'stand your ground.'"

For the past five years, the McBean family says they have been dealing with the frustration with this case. 

"He had no right -- because he was in uniform -- to use the 'stand your ground' law," Jermaine's mother, Jennifer Young, told NBC 6.

Peraza was charged with manslaughter for shooting McBean after being dispatched — something that hadn't happen to a law enforcement officer in Broward in three decades. Peraza told investigators McBean was entering an apartment complex with what he thought was a real rifle. 

Peraza told detectives he was concerned with what he saw because it was daytime when children and families were walking around the community at the time.

"He's sympathetic to what happened," Peraza's attorney, Eric Schwartzreich, said.

While prosecutors argue law enforcement officers should use a special law for them and not the "stand your ground" immunity for everyone else, Schwartzreich used "stand your ground" to get the charges against Peraza dismissed twice.

"If civilians are allowed to use 'stand your ground,' so should law enforcement," Schwartzreich said. "That was the intended purpose of the legislature when they said any person can use the 'stand your ground law.' They didn't say any person except law enforcement can use the 'stand your ground law.'"

In their ruling last August, the DCA asked the state's highest court to rule on the matter and make a decision that covers the entire state.

"The Supreme Court has decided it is a great matter of public importance that there is a conflict among jurisdictions in the state of Florida," Peraza's attorney, Eric Schwartzreich, exclusively told NBC 6. "Another court near Tampa where they have ruled law enforcement officers cannot use the absolute immunity statue in the course of an arrest."

Schwartzreich says he does not believe that Peraza will have to stand trial again in the case, regardless of how the Supreme Court rules.

The Broward County State Attorney chose not to speak to NBC 6 on camera but did say it's looking forward to Florida Supreme Court giving a final answer on whether law enforcement can use the "stand your ground" immunity.

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