OPA-LOCKA, FLA. (WSVN) - Body camera video shows several police officers using a Taser on a man multiple times before dragging him feet first out of an Opa-Locka home in late September.
The video captures officers entering a home along York Street on Sept. 21 after they received calls for help from a 19-year-old member of the home. Family members told the officers they had to tie Jafet Castro up because he was acting irrationally.
A relative could be seen assisting the officers with his leg over the man that was being taken into custody.
As officers get involved, the situation gets uglier, and trying to take the 19-year-old into custody proved to be a challenge for the officers.
“This guy’s overpowering us,” one officer said as they tried to place handcuffs on Castro.
Soon after, their efforts to handcuff Castro gives way to a Taser being deployed, and the sound of the stun gun is heard a few times in the body camera video as emotional relatives watch in agony.
Then, the young man is punched by an officer, and law enforcement members seem to disagree over whether or not the tactic was necessary.
“Don’t do it, don’t do it,” the first officer said. “That’s not going to help.”
“What do you mean don’t [expletive] do it? He’s resisting,” a second officer said. “Don’t [expletive] tell me ‘Don’t do it.'”
“I know, but he’s also just a 43,” the first officer said.
The Taser is used several more times before they drag Castro out of the home feet first. An officer could be heard yelling, “No more Tase,” as another officer uses the stun gun once more.
Attorney Michael Pizzi said he is filing suit against the city on behalf of the family, and they are seeking $5 million in damages.
“The City of Opa-Locka Police brutally beat, repeatedly stunned, punched in the face, kicked and dragged down a flight of stairs a mentally ill 19-year-old,” Pizzi said. “We will not rest until everybody responsible is accountable. The video speaks louder than words.”
In a statement, police said Castro was in “a violent rage,” and the city and its officers said when they arrived to the home, they found Castro “tied up with wire and extension cable. Mr. Castro refused orders to submit to being handcuffed by the officers on scene. The suspect resisted violently.”
“Sadly, they’re defending actions that should not come from a police officer,” Rafael Castro Mayor, the teen’s father, said through a translator.
On Thursday, Opa-Locka City Manager John E. Pate said he and other city leaders have reviewed the body camera video.
“The family had this individual hogtied themselves, so it’s a very, very stressful situation for everybody involved,” Pate said. “Tactics could have been better, but violation of policies and procedures, or excessive force, based on Mr. Castro’s actions, it doesn’t rise to that. It rises to training. It rises to re-education. It rises to public education, and it rises to outreach.”
Police also provided photos of an officer’s injured eye, another officer’s injured hand as well as photos of drug paraphernalia that, they said, was found in the home.
According to the city, besides some scratches on his hands, Castro did not have any serious injuries.
“Doctors determined that he was, in fact, under the influence of dangerous drugs,” officials said in a statement.
“It was a lot of moving pieces. It was a quickly evolving situation,” said Pate. “I felt it was prudent to release this video at the end of our inquiry, so we can show that the story that the subject’s attorney was giving and the family was giving was unnecessary.”
Pizzi said the officer dragging Castro out of the home is Opa-Locka Police Lt. Sergio Perez, who was fired from the force for his role in a fatal wrong-way chase on Interstate 95 in April 2013 that killed four tourists. He was later rehired by the department.
Police opted not to take Castro to jail and instead took him to a mental health facility, where he stayed for a least a couple of days under evaluation. He is not facing any criminal charges.
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