According to newly released dispatch tapes, police fired more than 100 rounds at the young man who perished during the tense and chaotic shooting that rocked the 2011 Urban Beach Weekend.
That finding about the violent May 30, 2011 gunfire exchange that left 22-year-old Raymond Herisse dead and four others injured during the popular Memorial Day weekend event is one of several new details contained in the roughly four hours of audio investigators finally made available for public scrutiny, Sunday.
A portion of the tapes describes the moment in which an officer is informing another that he believes Herisse shot one of their colleagues.
Officer 1: “Hialeah 200 priority, there’s a vehicle fleeing southbound on Collins at 16th Street.”
Officer 2: “I believe he struck one of the officers.”
The audio captures a dispatcher stating the location of the vehicle Herisse was driving as police attempted to stop him.
Dispatcher: “Attention units (3-15): Silver Hyundai heading southbound 16th Street and Collins, southbound 16th Street and Collins, a silver Hyundai.
Police maintain Herisse ignored orders to pull over, hitting one officer and narrowly missing several others.
Officer 1: “Shots fired! Shots fired! We have a vehicle fleeing at high rate of speed, Española [Way] southbound, Collins Avenue.”
Officer 2: “Shots fired! Doesn’t know why shots fired!”
Moments after Herisse allegedly hit an officer, the audio picks up the barrage of bullets that hailed on the deceased. Officers fired 116 rounds at Herisse. Sixteen of them hit the 22-year-old, who would later die from his gunshot wounds.
Officer 1: “13th and Collins, car stopped.”
Officer 2: “Where’s the subject? Where’s the subject?”
Officer 3: “In the vehicle, [police code] hold the air … at gunpoint.”
Dispatcher: “Multiple shots, 14th and Collins.”
Herisse’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Hialeah and Miami Beach Police Departments in May. His mother, Marceline Azor, made the announcement at a May 21 press conference during which she broke down in tears.
Herisse’s sister said her brother’s death is a loss from which the family has not recovered. “We’re unable to live, it’s not the same anymore,” said Charline Herisse. “We don’t want it to happen again. I mean, I don’t want to have to leave and go out and hear that, you know, police are going to start shooting.”
The audio also sheds light on the injuries the other victims suffered during the shooting and the locations where they were struck
Officer 1: “There’s another victim, a second rescue truck, 1-4 and Collins, a female shot in the arm, conscious and breathing.”
Officer 2: “We have a man down at the Delores Hotel, 1420 Collins.”
Officer 3: “We got another one hit on the hip, 1350 Collins.”
Marwan Porter, Herisse’s family attorney, said the audio footage shows what his clients have argued all along: Herisse did not fire a weapon or do anything that warranted the hail of bullets. “They have no answers,” he said. “Mrs. Azor said, ‘One day my baby’s here, the next day he’s gone.'”
It is now up to the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office to decide whether or not the officers’ actions during the shooting were justified.