screenshots via Instagram
Audio By Carbonatix
When Miami cops screw up, civilians are typically the ones who wind up getting hurt. But in a previously unrevealed incident from January 4, an utterly boneheaded move wound up injuring one of Miami’s finest. A video clip that began making the rounds on social media today shows two City of Miami cops attempting to arrest an alleged drug dealer and a homeless man accused of trying to buy crack cocaine – and one of the officers apparently wound up tasing himself by accident.
“Oh, my God! He shot himself!” a woman who witnessed the incident says in the video. “I can’t believe that.”
Blogger Al Crespo published the footage earlier this afternoon. According to an arrest report from the Miami Police Department, two officers identified as “G. Casiano” and “G. Castillo” allegedly spotted two men exchanging what looked like crack paraphernalia on the corner of SW 12th Avenue and SW Third Street in East Little Havana. As the cops attempted to apprehend the alleged drug dealer, the police report says, the suspect “began to actively resist,” and a “struggle ensued.”
When news happens, Miami New Times is there —
Your support strengthens our coverage.
We’re aiming to raise $30,000 by December 31, so we can continue covering what matters most to you. If Miami New Times matters to you, please take action and contribute today, so when news happens, our reporters can be there.
The “struggle,” however, apparently included one of the cops firing a Taser into his own leg and comedically falling over.
The report adds that the homeless man, identified as 56-year-old Lazaro Perez, then fled the scene. But cops apprehended him around 6:17 p.m. the next day. In that case, the cops claimed they picked up Perez with “no incident.”