Police review video footage from 200-bullet police shootout.
MIRAMAR — Authorities are reviewing hundreds of videos from the deadly shootout between the police and robbers, seeking answers to the most pressing questions, agents have told the family of one of the slain bystanders.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement told the family of commuter Richard Cutshaw that it is reviewing scores of video footage pulled from police body cameras and dash cameras, city-owned cameras near the shooting and footage shared on social media by witnesses.
Adrian Mendiondo, an attorney for the family, said the FDLE did not release many new details about Cutshaw’s death in a meeting that lasted over an hour Tuesday. But his family walked away “feeling that the FDLE is dedicating its full resources to figuring out exactly what happened.”
The department also is analyzing the ballistics of at least 20 officers who fired a weapon on Dec. 5.
Mendiondo, who has worked on cases involving police shootings for more than 13 years, said he and other attorneys representing Cutshaw’s family were impressed by the breadth of the investigation. “It is substantial,” he said.
He described the amount of agents working on the investigation as “more than we are accustomed to seeing” in other police shootings and said he believes the reason is because of the sheer number of shots fired and officers involved.
On Wednesday morning, Miami-Dade County’s Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement Committee held a roundtable meeting that included members of FDLE, Miami-Dade Police Department director Juan Perez and Miami-Dade County Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava, according to county spokeswoman Griselle Marino.
During the meeting, the FDLE said preliminary numbers revealed that about 200 shell casings from rounds fired by both police and the suspects were found at the scene of the shootout in Miramar, according to WPLG-Ch. 10.
Mendiondo said Cutshaw’s family was told they will receive a death certificate for their slain loved one within the next few days. The certificate will list a cause of death, but won’t answer the families questions as to whose bullets killed Cutshaw in the shootout and how many bullets he was struck by.
Mendiondo said the FDLE told the family that a full medical examiner’s report likely won’t be released until the investigation is closed. He said ballistics information likely won’t be available until then, either.
The FDLE did not provide the family with a timeline as to how long the investigation will take, according to Mendiondo. “What we were told is that it’s going to take a long time,” he said.
Mendiondo said that in the absence of more detailed ballistics information related to Cutshaw’s death, he hopes the FDLE will act quickly to at the very least determine whether any bullets that killed Cutshaw were fired from the two robbers. “No one has said one way or the other,” he said.
In addition to meeting with the family of Cutshaw, the FDLE confirmed to their attorneys that they have also spoken with the family of Frank Ordoñez — who was also killed in the shootout after being taken hostage in his UPS van.
As of now, there are no other meetings scheduled between Cutshaw’s family and the FDLE, according to Mendiondo.