We’ve discussed previously how police officers sometimes use questionable tactics that result in criminal charges being reduced or dismissed. Authorities in Broward County and throughout the country have obligations to conduct any arrest or investigation in accordance with the law, and one young man from Pompano Beach says the officers who arrested him failed to uphold those standards. The police, however, tell a different story.
According to two deputies, the 21-year-old, who has been convicted previously on drug charges, drove a vehicle at them, and they opened fire because they feared for their lives. The deputies claim the young man was behaving suspiciously, and a detective pulled his vehicle in front of the suspect’s SUV to stop it. The police were wearing tactical gear at the time, since the Metro Broward Drug Task Force was conducting a sweep.
However, the young man who was shot said the deputies started firing before he accelerated the vehicle. He told the Sun-Sentinel that the police never ordered him out of the SUV and that a bullet came through the windshield and hit him in his mouth. He then tried to flee. “That’s when the glass started popping everywhere,” he said.
The bullet entered the 21-year-old’s mouth and went out the bottom of his chin. He additionally suffered chest wounds, and a bullet was still stuck in the skin over his shoulder blade at the time of the news report. He also coughed up blood two weeks after the incident.
The young man was charged with possession of cocaine, though he says the drugs the officers found belonged to a friend.
This shooting was the second one in the last six months involving a deputy who appears on the popular TV show, “Police Women of Broward County.” The other incident involved a deputy who fired at an unarmed man who tried to flee after he was pulled over for a traffic stop.
Source: Huffington Post, “Andrea Penoyer Tianga, Reality Show Cop, Accused of Shooting Brandon Johnson During Nap,” April 3, 2012
