Wife of man killed by officers files suit
Shooting took place while suspect tried to flee in plaza parking lot
The wife of a man fatally shot by two police officers in the parking lot of an Orlando shopping plaza in 2018 is suing the officers and the city, claiming her husband was wrongfully killed.
The federal suit, filed earlier this month in Florida’s Middle District, claims OPD officers Anthony Wong Shue and Juan Abreu used “unreasonable… deadly force” against Juan Silva May 7, 2018, as he fled the officers outside the Marshalls department story at Colonial Plaza, just east of downtown.
Silva was driving a gold minivan occupied by two women suspected of shoplifting from the Marshalls store. The van was backed into a parking spot in front of the store, and Wong Shue and Abreu surrounded it after the shoplifting suspects entered.
As Silva drove out of the spot to flee, the officers fired into the van.
The attorney representing Silva’s family, Jaeson Homola, said Silva’s wife decided to file the suit because “she feels like she owes it to him… to try and find some justice in this all.”
Viridiana Silva, Juan Silva’s wife, is seeking an unspecified amount in damages resulting from the loss of her husband, saying in the suit she has experienced “mental pain and suffering” and Silva’s five children “have suffered the loss of their father’s companionship, instruction and guidance.”
Spokespeople for the Orlando Police Department and the city declined to comment on the lawsuit.
The suit claims Wong Shue and Abreu used excessive force and were negligent in handling their firearms. The city, which employs the officers, also failed to properly train and monitor OPD officers’ use of their weapons, acting with “deliberate indifference,” which “was a proximate cause of Juan