OPA-LOCKA, FLA. (WSVN) - A Miami Gardens police officer was arrested after investigators said he threatened his former girlfriend with a firearm during a domestic dispute in Opa-locka and later tried to persuade her not to cooperate with the investigation.
According to an arrest report, Kolei Kulani McKinney Sr., 41, and the victim had been in a romantic relationship for about eight months before an argument escalated on July 17.
Investigators said the victim became concerned after seeing McKinney driving erratically and called him, asking him to pull over so they could talk.
After both vehicles stopped, McKinney allegedly got into the front passenger seat of the victim’s vehicle.
When she asked him, “What is wrong with you? You need to calm down,” McKinney allegedly replied, “I can’t fucking take this no more; I’m just going to end this shit.”
According to the report, McKinney then pulled a black handgun from his waistband, pointed and waved it toward the windshield while saying, “You know, fuck it, we just going to end this shit.”
The victim told detectives she asked him to put the gun away, but he instead threw it onto the dashboard and continued acting erratically.
Investigators said the victim then asked McKinney to get out of her vehicle. Instead, he allegedly grabbed her by the neck with both hands and began choking her.
Police said McKinney then retrieved the firearm, placed it in the vehicle’s center console and told the victim, “Here, you want to end it, just fucking end it.”
The victim told detectives she feared for her life throughout the encounter because she believed she was in imminent danger of serious bodily harm or death.
According to investigators, the victim reported the incident on July 19. During a follow-up interview, she said McKinney later contacted her and asked her to recant her statement and stop speaking with detectives.
She also reported that he violated a temporary injunction by calling her again while she was at work.
McKinney voluntarily surrendered Thursday at the Opa-locka Police Department with his attorney and was taken into custody without incident.
During bond court Friday, a judge found probable cause and set McKinney’s bond at $6,000.
McKinney faces charges of aggravated assault with a firearm, using or displaying a firearm while committing a felony, tampering with a victim or witness, improper exhibition of a firearm, violating a domestic violence injunction and domestic battery.
McKinney’s defense attorney shared a statement with 7News, denying the allegations against his client:
Officer McKinney vehemently denies these allegations that were manufactured by an obsessed woman who has been stalking him and harassing him and has done this to many other men, most of whom are also in law enforcement, despite the fact that she is married herself to a corrections officer and has 5 kids. She has harassed Officer McKinney incessantly, his wife his friends and other people to get at him. Officer McKinney tried to get an injunction against her for stalking and harassment, but he was unable to obtain an injunction. In fact, she has a permanent injunction issued against her for her erratic, obsessive, and stalking behavior. She did this to Officer McKinney because he broke off the relationship with her and chose instead to work things out with his wife and stay through marriage counseling. The alleged victim vowed to take revenge against him because of the breakup, and she did so by fabricating these allegations against him. Officer McKinney is a good officer and Navy Veteran a man of good character who fell prey to this woman. It is a shame that someone can just make up an allegation about a police officer and that person gets arrested on nothing more than her word. Despite the fact that my client cooperated with the Opa Locka Police Department’s investigation, surrendered himself and gave a sworn statement under penalty of perjury and provided records to support his sworn statement, the Opa Locka Police Department chose to ignore and omit those facts and records from Officer Mckinney’s Arrest Affidavit.
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