Deputy won’t face trial for shooting

Judge upholds ‘stand-your-ground’ defense in McBean death

Suspended Broward Sheriff’s Deputy Peter Peraza was acting in self-defense and should not face trial in the 2013 shooting death of Jermaine McBean, a Broward judge ruled Wednesday.

The decision by Broward Circuit Judge Michael Usan, dismissing a manslaughter charge against Peraza, will be appealed by prosecutors, according to a statement fromthe Broward State Attorney’s Office.

McBean was shot on July 31, 2013 after ignoring orders to drop an air rifle he had been holding while walking through an Oakland Park neighborhood. Deputies arrived after several calls to 911had been made.

Broward Police Benevolent Association lawyers Eric Schwartzreich and Anthony Bruno, who represent Peraza, presented their argument to Usan during six days of hearings last month, with prosecutors Tim Donnelly and Ryan Kelley arguing that Peraza is not entitled to immunity from prosecution under the state’s “stand your ground”

law.

The law allows a judge to stop the case before it reaches a jury as long as selfdefense can be established by a preponderance of evidence. Usan said the defense met that burden.

“McBean pointed the weapon at or in the direction of the deputies,” Usan said. “[Peraza] was in fear for his life and the lives of others.”

Usan also ruled that the “stand your ground” law applies to police officers on duty because it applies to “a person who uses force ...”

“A law enforcement officer under any reasonable understanding of our language qualifies as a person,” Usan wrote.

Ron Ishoy, spokesman for the Broward State Attorney’s Office, said the judge got it wrong.

“While we respect the court’s decision, we disagree with its conclusion,” he said in a statement emailed to media. “We believe, based upon an appellate court decision, that a law enforcement officer is not entitled to a dismissal of the charge based upon the Stand Your Ground Law. While there is conflicting evidence, we feel a jury should resolve those conflicts.”

The Broward Sheriff’s Office said Peraza will remain suspended but will receive back pay dating from his arrest on Dec.11, 2015. An internal investigation into the shooting is ongoing.

McBean’s brother, speaking at a Bro ward Black Lives Matter meeting at the African-American Research Library Wednesday evening, said he wants Peraza to return the award he was given by the Sheriff’s Office after the shooting. Peraza received the award on the same stage from which Andrew McBean was speaking.

“Jermaine died and police lied,” he said. “Mistakes happen. Accidents happen. But cover-ups are planned.”

Usan’s ruling comes at a tense time in police-community relations across the country. Also Wednesday, prosecutors in Baltimore dropped charges against three police officers accused in the death of Freddie Gray, a black man who died in police custody last year.

Fatal shootings of black men by police in Baton Rouge, La., and Minnesota, followed by deadly attacks on police in Baton Rouge and Dallas carried out by gunmen expressing support for the Black Lives Matter movement, dominated headlines in the days after Usan finished hearing testimony and arguments in Peraza’s case.

Jesse Cosme, a spokesman for the Black Lives Matter Alliance of Broward, said he was disappointed that Broward’s first indictment of a law enforcement officer in an on-duty shooting in more than 25 years may not ever make it to a jury.

“There are no winners or losers here,” said Schwartzreich. “A man lost his life. But at the end of the day every law enforcement officer in this community can feel a sense of relief that they can do their jobs without worrying that if they do their jobs and protect us in this day and age that they’re going to end up indicted for murder.”

David Schoen, the attorney representing the McBean family in a federal civil suit, criticized the decision. “I think it’s completely lawless,” he said. “It’s a slap in the face to the people of Broward County, to the rule of law and to the grand jury.”

Supporters of Peraza said the grand jury and the Broward State Attorney’s Office picked the wrong case to make an example of their commitment to hold law enforcement responsible for shooting civilians.

“Given the climate in our country right now, there’s a lot of division and we want to assign blame,” said Bruno. “While there are bad shootings and we believe police officers should be held accountable, this was not such a case. By every indication, Deputy Peraza was justified in the shooting.”

The mental health of McBean, 33, was a key issue for the judge. The defense asserted that McBean had mental health issues and was unstable. Usan ruled that the concerns were relevant, even though Peraza could not have known about them at the time of the fatal confrontation.

“It is relevant to [the judge’s] consideration of whether the victim provoked the attack,” Usan wrote. “In this case, the evidence establishes that McBean, as a result of his mental health conditions, had numerous dangerous psychotic episodes over the course of more than two years prior to the shooting, the most recent of which was just days before.”

Each of those episodes, Usan said, prompted emergency calls that resulted in McBean’s involuntary hospitalization.

Cosme faulted the judge for considering McBean’s mental state.

“A mental health condition is a license [for police] to kill them, and a judge just reaffirmed that license to kill,” Cosme said.

McBean had bought an air rifle from a pawn shop near his home in the Greentree Apartment complex in Oakland Park and was walking home with the rifle slung over his shoulders, prompting calls to 911.

When deputies arrived, McBean ignored their orders to put the weapon down, according to testimony at the June hearings. Peraza said he fired when McBean appeared to begin swinging the weapon toward deputies.

“I really thought that I could be killed,” said Peraza, who said he was also considering the lives of his fellow deputies and civilians whowere nearby.

Donnelly and Kelley argued that McBean could not hear the deputies’ orders because he was listening to music through a pair of earbuds, and they said Peraza was too quick to pull the trigger. Two other deputies on scene did not open fire, they noted.

Usan’s ruling is thought to be the first instance in Florida of a law enforcement officer being cleared of a criminal charge under “stand your ground.”

Schoen challenged the judge’s findings, saying autopsy results showed McBean could not have been facing Peraza when the fatal shots were fired and citing civilian witnesses who never saw McBean point the weapon toward deputies.

Usan, in his ruling, said the civilian witnesses were not focused on McBean’s actions before the shooting.

Broward Sheriff Scott Israel issued a statement Wednesday that neither praised nor condemned Usan’s decision.

“A life was lost, and this is a tragedy no matter how you look at it,” he said. “Iam not a lawyer. I am not a judge and I don’t make legal decisions. I pray for God to comfort all those affected and for our community to begin to heal and find peace.”