NORTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) - A family is fighting for justice following a fatal confrontation between a police officer and a man in Northwest Miami-Dade.
It’s been more than a year since Junior Prosper was killed in a Miami-Dade Police-involved shooting. Police said they tried to use a Taser to try to subdue Propser, but he went on the attack, so they were then forced to fire upon him.
“I’ve been holding out for too long, too long,” said his widow Edeiline Prosper, “and I just can’t anymore … He was just working and something went wrong that night. They took his life away and for no reason at all.”
Wednesday, Edeiline Prospers’ team of lawyers filed a federal civil rights lawsuit, along with a wrongful death claim.
“It has been 16 months, 16 months,” said Michael Oppenheimer, part of the defense team for Prosper, “and law enforcement and the government is still saying that there is an ongoing investigation. You’ve got to be kidding me. That is a joke. What are they waiting for?”
Now, the defense team has released surveillance video from that day that, they said, shows Prosper crawling away, unarmed.
That early September 2015 morning, Prosper, a Yellow Cab taxi driver, crashed his car into a light-pole near an on-ramp at Northwest Sixth Court and 119th Street.
Cameras at a nearby business filmed Prosper exiting the vehicle on foot and then making his way onto Interstate 95 southbound, which is when a Miami-Dade officer caught up with the 31-year-old.
At the time, police said, Prosper clamped his jaw down on the officer’s hand, forcing that officer to shoot.
“Even if Junior did bite his finger, when was it?” said Oppenheimer. “Was it after the officer shot him twice, and he was unable to control himself? Who knows what happened, because they’re not telling us.”
Additionally, the medical examiner’s office is not releasing any information to Prosper’s widow. “I was very hurt because I’m his wife,” she said.
Described as a hard working family man, Prosper left behind a wife, four children and a broken family, who are now asking for justice and closure.
“My son, he cared about his family,” said his father. “It’s just a nightmare because every single day I’m in the house, and I’ll play with the baby and start crying.”
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