The 50 minutes of footage provide a small glimpse into what transpired on November 29, 2023. The two plainclothes detectives who fatally shot the 59-year-old, Mario Fernandez and Jorge Sanchez, were not wearing body cameras that day. The officer wearing a body camera, William Hilson, turned off his audio four minutes into the footage. For the video's remaining 46 minutes, there is no sound.
Upon arrival, Hilson speaks to Fernandez, sitting in the passenger seat of an unmarked vehicle. "Remember, we are all wearing cameras. You OK? Look at your fucking windshield, buddy," Hilson says. "You are fucking lucky."
"I fucking shot back. I shot through my windshield, too," Fernandez responds. Hilson tells him, "Good job," and gives him a thumbs up. He reminds him again, "Remember, we're all wearing cameras."
Hilson says he drove by the property and "those guys were sitting outside."
"Is this one of the bad guys, or we don't know?" Fernandez asks. Hilson says he doesn't know.
Hilson then walks to another unmarked vehicle to hand the plainclothed officer a water bottle and reiterates that he's wearing a camera. In the three minutes and 43 seconds of the video footage with accompanying audio, Hilson announces that he is wearing a body camera five times.
"Good job," Hilson says, giving the officer a thumbs up as well. "If you need anything, let me know," he says.
Hilson heads toward where Cueli is lying motionless, blood covering his face.
"We gonna clear this?" he asks another officer, pointing toward Cueli. The officer nods. "Yeah, yeah."
Hilson steps closer to Cueli's body as the other officer asks, "You live?"
"We're all live. I'm gonna put it on silent, though," Hilson replies, before turning off his audio. His microphone remains off for the rest of the 50-minute video.
About 12 minutes into the body-worn camera footage, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue arrives. One officer covers Cueli's body with a tarp, while others use bolt cutters to break through a heavy metal chain securing the property gate. Officers then begin clearing the surrounding area.
The Cueli family says that the two plainclothed officers, Fernandez and Sanchez, drove up to the property in unmarked pickup trucks and began firing without identifying themselves. Cueli's son, who was with his father when Fernandez and Sanchez drove to the edge of the property, maintains that the 59-year-old did not point a firearm at them. A man reportedly called police after spotting what he believed was his stolen dump truck on the property, and said someone in a black Toyota Camry chased him off.
Osvaldo Cueli lies motionless on the ground as officers try to open the gate on the property.
Miami Dade Police Department body camera screenshot
"However, because the exact sequence of events cannot be determined, due to the fact that there is no eyewitness who can establish the exact sequence of events, there is no video of the events, and both detective Fernandez and detective Sanchez declined to give a statement, there is insufficient evidence upon which to conclude either that the shooting was legally justified," the memo reads.
An autopsy report concluded that Cueli died of a gunshot wound to his back.
Prosecutors released a 911 call in which Cueli's teenage son pleads for an ambulance to help his father.
"Hello, I'm here on 18200 SW 192 St," he says. "The cops came. They have shot my father."
"OK. The police are there, right?" the 911 operator responds. Cueli's son tells the operator that the police are saying they did "nothing wrong."
"Yes, but they are not bringing the ambulance or nothing," the teenager adds.
In an interview last year, the Cueli family told New Times that they felt the officers did not take swift enough action to help save their loved one.
"Their main concern was to get me and my brother out of the property and onto the road away from my dad," Cueli's daughter, Gabriela Cueli, told New Times. "They weren't trying to help him. They had all of us detained for various hours along the road."
