Police officer is cleared of shooting death for third time

A Homestead police officer was cleared Tuesday of any criminal wrongdoing in the 2015 shooting death of Edward Foster III, who was shot through the open passenger window of a patrol car. The officer reported that Foster, whose family said he had been walking home after buying dog food, pointed a gun at him and refused to drop it.

The long-delayed investigation into the controversial shooting, which sparked protests from family members and activists at the height of this summer’s civil rights marches, marked the third time in just over a decade that Officer Anthony Green had been cleared after shooting and killing a suspect while on duty. A fourth man that Green shot twice in the stomach in 2008 after an alleged armed robbery, survived.

“It is reasonable to believe that officer Green feared for his life and considered it necessary to use deadly force to prevent injury to himself,” wrote the Miami-Dade State Attorney review team that investigated the shooting. “Therefore, we find that officer Anthony Green was legally justified in the use of deadly force by firing his weapon.”

Reached Tuesday by phone, Foster’s sister Crystal Foster, had to catch her breath and stopped crying before she spoke. She said witnesses told her that her brother was on the ground with his hands on his head when he was shot.

“My brother was shot multiple times in the back. That story is not true. That memo is false,” she said. “It’s not fair. He couldn’t have shot him like that from inside a vehicle.”

Steadman Stahl, president of Miami-Dade’s Police Benevolent Association, said he regretted it took so long for the state attorney to reach a conclusion, but Green had “no recourse” but to fire his weapon at Foster.

“Officer Green had to fire his gun. He feared for his life,” said Stahl.

In July, the family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Homestead and Green asking for a jury trial and arguing excessive force was used against Foster, who family members said was walking back from a Dollar Store after buying food for his dog. The case gained steam over the summer when a former prosecutor running against Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle took up the family’s cause and marched with them, blasting the state attorney for refusing to charge police in shooting deaths over the past three decades.

Fernandez Rundle won the August election handily.

Green told investigators he had no choice but to fire his weapon at Foster on

July 16, 2015, because Foster refused orders to drop his weapon and get on the ground. Green said when he spotted Foster, the man pulled a gun from his waistband and took off. He followed Foster, a 32-year-old father of six, in his patrol car and shot when he said Foster pointed the gun at him. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue workers who tried to revive Foster found a 9 mm Sig Sauer handgun on the ground near him.

Foster was shot multiple times, including several times in his back, family members said. Family attorney Michael Pizzi said he has pictures showing Foster was shot five times in the back part of his body.

“If he turned the gun toward the police officer, why was he shot in the back?” Pizzi asked.

Foster’s shooting death was Green’s third deadly shooting while on duty in 11 years. He was cleared in the two previous fatal shootings. And Foster, whose nickname is “Butch” and who had previous convictions for burglary and drug possession, was on probation for attempted murder and armed robbery when he was killed.

Green, 48, is a 26-year veteran who in 2005 shot and killed an unarmed man named Jason Williams during a struggle outside a convenience store. He claimed Williams was reaching for his gun. Prosecutors cleared him of any wrongdoing. Two years later he shot and killed Anthony Cinotti, a convicted murderer who police believe was trying to woo back his girlfriend. Green said he shot Cinotti after he pulled out a knife and stabbed his girlfriend and her 11-year-old son. Again, Green was cleared of any wrongdoing.

A year later, in 2008, Green fired his weapon again. This time he shot at a burglary suspect in what was described as an armed robbery. The suspect was shot twice in the stomach and survived. During the incident, a K9 German Shepherd named Bart was shot in the leg, but lived.

Stahl, the union president, said Green’s multiple shootings were the unfortunate result of geography.

“There are parts of Homestead that are very dangerous,” Stahl said. “Officer Green is an active police officer. Unfortunately, there are things he had to encounter.”

Green is also a decorated police officer who began his career with the department as an explorer in 1990. He served as a dispatcher, a field training officer and on the department’s K9 unit. In May 2014, he received Homestead Officer of the Month from the mayor. The mayor lauded Green for his 11 arrests, and seizure of 37 marijuana plants worth almost $100,000 during a bust in February of that year.

State records show Foster had several arrests and convictions dating back to 2009. In 2012 he accepted a plea deal for a shooting in which he was jailed for 364 days and on probation for five years. The probationary period was troublesome for Foster, who in 2014 refused to give a urine test to check for drugs, walking out of the probation office.

He was later arrested and claimed “he took a hit off a joint when he was laid off from his job and begged for a chance.” Ultimately, Foster was returned to probation. Then in January 2015 he was arrested again. This time after his girlfriend of two years claimed Foster “grabbed her by the hair and slammed her on the bed,” holding her there for three or four minutes. He was charged with battery and false imprisonment, though the charges were later dropped.