Officer cleared in shooting protester with rubber bullet
Fort Lauderdale cop didn’t do anything wrong, internal investigation finds
FORT LAUDERDALE — A Fort Lauderdale police officer who shot a protester in the face with a rubber bullet, breaking her eye socket, didn’t do anything wrong, a police investigation has found.
Detective Eliezer Ramos was aiming at someone else who had been throwing tear gas canisters at police during a volatile protest May 31 in downtown Fort Lauderdale, Interim Police Chief Patrick Lynn said Thursday. But Ramos missed and hit protester LaToya Ratlieff in the face.
“The internal affairs investigation has determined that it was not Detective Ramos’ intent to strike Ms. Ratlieff,” Lynn said.
Michael Davis, an attorney for the injured protester, called the investigation a “sham” that never intended to provide real accountability. “This investigation has never been about finding out what actually happened,” he said. “This investigation has always been about trying to justify what happened.”
Ramos’ case is one of three internal affairs investigations opened up after the protest. The Black Lives Matter demonstration began at 3 p.m. May 31 and was by all accounts peaceful until it wound down around 6 p.m.
At that point, protesters say police instigated a large crowd by shoving a kneeling woman to the ground. Police say protesters started the chaos when they attacked several police officers in their cars and broke windows.
What is certain is that the scene became ugly. Protesters threw bottles, rocks and fireworks. Police returned with rubber bullets and tear gas canisters.
Another internal affairs investigation into two officers who were heard reveling in the firing was also closed Thursday.
Body-camera footage picked up audio of Detective Zachary Baro and Officer Jamie Chatman saying, “pop his ass” and “get that motherf—-er,” among other things, while
firing into the crowd. Both officers were found guilty of using obscene and vulgar language.
Each was suspended for one day.
An ‘unfortunate incident’
Interim Chief Lynn said Ratlieff’s shooting was an “unfortunate incident.” He also acknowledged that the protest, which began peacefully and spiraled out of control in the evening, was a black eye for the department.
He apologized to Ratlieff and the community, noting that the aftermath of the protest “caused some to question the relationship between the Fort Lauderdale Police Department and the community that we so deeply care to protect.”
Davis said that while Ratlieff accepts the apology, she is disappointed by the results of the investigation — but not surprised.
In an initial interview with police this summer, an internal affairs investigator in charge of looking into Ramos told her the detective was a friend of his and a “good guy.” Because of the comments, the investigator was removed from the department’s Office of Internal Affairs.
Davis said Ratlieff had an idea of how things might shake out after that. “We knew what the result was going to be,” he said. “But I think we still had hope that the right thing would be done.”
Although Ratlieff has not sued the police department or the city, Davis said it is an option she will explore if she feels the Police Department does not reform its training and procedures.
In August, Ratlieff provided the city of Fort Lauderdale and the police department with specific proposals that include yearly de-escalation training for officers and a new system that rewards officers for using de-escalation tactics even when use of force would have been justified.
Police mentioned no policy changes or further reforms in their brief statements at a news conference Thursday.
Lynn said the police department spent 600 hours looking into the shooting of Ratlieff, reviewed hundreds of hours of body-camera footage and tapped an independent use-of-force expert to conduct a review.
According to the internal affairs report released Thursday, Ramos fired at a protester who was moving toward a canister on the ground that was still spewing gas. The protester was behind Ratlieff, who was hunched over coughing from tear gas. Ramos fired through a cloud of smoke and Ratlieff “crossed directly within the deployed munitions path of travel,” the report says.
The rubber bullet struck her head. She fell to the ground, and the crowd carried her out and took her to the hospital.
In the end, Lynn said Ramos had identified and aimed his gun at someone who he was in his right to shoot. Although he missed, he was not found to have violated any policies.
Warnings required
Davis, like law enforcement experts interviewed by the South Florida Sun Sentinel in June, said that based on available footage from reporters and police body-cameras, police never gave a verbal warning before firing into the crowd that evening.
In June, Casey Liening, a spokeswoman for the Fort Lauderdale Police Department, said officers gave a verbal warning at some point during the night, but Liening could not specify when.
She said policy does say police should provide a verbal warning before escalating force. “But in moments when our officers are being actively attacked, the safety of our officers would take precedent.”
In an interview with police during the internal affairs investigation, Ratlieff said she had been kneeling before officers with other protesters and was confused why tear gas and bullets were being fired. “We didn’t see anything that prompted the officers to start the attack,” she said. “And there was never any announcement made by the officers to any of the demonstrators.”
Although no violations of policy were found in the review into Ramos’ actions, Lynn said the police department has made “every effort” to learn from what happened.
Since the shooting, the department has shuffled out two chiefs of police. Lynn, the third chief of police since the protest, has been on the job for only a week.
The only remaining internal affairs investigation centers on the the shoving of a protester by Officer Steven Pohorence. The investigation remains open pending the conclusion of a criminal case against Pohorence.