Officer who punched woman may be fired
A Miami-Dade police officer who was relieved of duty after video showed him punching a woman at Miami International Airport may lose his job.
Miami-Dade Police Director Alfredo Ramirez made the announcement at 4 p.m. Thursday.
“As a result of an administrative investigation into the officer’s conduct during this incident, it is my intent to proceed with the termination of the involved officer’s employment with the Miami-Dade Police Department,” he said in a statement. “The administrative process to proceed with termination has been initiated.”
The incident happened Wednesday following a dispute between Paris Anderson, 21, and Officer Anthony Rodriguez.
According to the arrest report, she was upset about not being allowed to board an American Airlines flight to Chicago because the booking agent said she arrived too late.
Police were called when Anderson became upset and the video shows her going face-to-face with the officer and she is heard yelling: “You acting like you white when you really Black…what you want to do?”
The officer then takes a step back before punching her in the face with a closed fist, and pushing her once she was on the ground.
“She head-butted me,” the officer is heard saying.
The woman was handcuffed by officers who were standing nearby. She was charged with disorderly conduct and battery on a police officer.
“I am shocked and angered by a body cam video that I just saw involving one of our officers,” Ramirez tweeted Wednesday night. “I’ve immediately initiated an investigation and ordered that the involved officers be relieved of duty.”
He later clarified that only the officer seen hitting the woman had been relieved of duty.
“This will not stand and I assure our community that any officer acting in this vain will be held to account,” Ramirez added in a statement.
A statue of a chef at Florio’s of Little Italy restaurant wears a protective face mask on the Hollywood Beach Broadwalk during the new coronavirus pandemic.
Mayor: Palm Beach County won’t shut down late-night dining at restaurants — for now
Still, he said authorities are on standby.
Palm Beach County has recently made two major moves to try to stem the rise in COVID-19 cases: authorities there finally passed a mask mandate, and then announced it would spend millions to send each household two re-usable masks.
Leaders are still scrambling to contain the new coronavirus. Throughout the state there have been 3,718 COVID-caused fatalities.
There have been nearly 15,000 cases of the new coronavirus in Palm Beach County, and 537 people have died.
Kerner said he expects to “see a turn in the numbers and we feel comfortable for now, letting these businesses stay open.”
Palm Beach County won’t shut down indoor dining at restaurants past midnight, saying it hasn’t faced the same degree of late-night revelry at eateries that other counties have in South Florida.
But if the problem worsens, then the county would add those nighttime restrictions to curb the spread of the new coronavirus. In fact, the emergency order already has been readied in case the county needs to impose it, Palm Beach County Mayor Dave Kerner said Thursday.
The county’s administration is ready to “pull that trigger when necessary” if residents are not following the rules and masks and social distancing over the
Dave Kerner,
“I’m not going to just follow what Broward and Miami-Dade does.”
Palm Beach County mayor
holiday weekend, Kerner told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
He said he does not want to “see a regression in our economy” and pleaded with residents to be responsible. “It’s a difficult Fourth of July,” Kerner said at a news conference, held on the same day that Florida saw a record-breaking number of new coronavirus cases, exceeding 10,000.
In recent days, MiamiDade and Broward counties put new restrictions in place for restaurants past midnight. Broward took action because people were congregating at restaurants in the overnight hours because bars were closed.
Restaurants in Broward are now shut down for onsite dining from midnight until 5 a.m. Miami-Dade similarly is requiring businesses to stop on-site dining past midnight.
But Palm Beach County already has seen increased compliance from people wearing masks and “the community is starting to realize the impact of this pandemic,” Kerner said.
“I’m not going to just follow what Broward and Miami-Dade does,” he said.