MIAMI (WSVN) - A new view of what happened during a traffic stop that ended in police shooting and killing a man in Miami has been released.
Newly released body camera video shows the moments that led up to a Miami Police sergeant opening fire and killing a man in March.
It started with what police said was a routine traffic stop on Northwest 10th Avenue near 71st Street, just outside Miami Northwestern Senior High School.
The officer approached the red car and asked for the driver’s paperwork.
“License, registration, insurance,” said the officer in the video.
The driver, who family identified as 34-year-old Antwan Cooper, told the officer he doesn’t have his insurance card on him.
“That’s fine, I just need the license. I’ll look up the insurance,” said the officer.
Cooper and the officer had what appears to be a calm exchange, but when the officer asked Cooper to get out of the car things took a turn.
About nine seconds later, you’re able to hear a gunshot and then you see the sergeant, who came to assist the officer, walk into the frame with his gun drawn.
7News spoke to Cooper’s family after the video was released and his mother is still processing pain of what had happened.
“He didn’t have to shoot my son,” said Cooper’s mother, Tilasha Cooper. “I’m nothing without my son, nothing without my son.”
“Officer became aware that one of the individuals in the vehicle was armed. A struggle ensued and one of the officers discharged his firearm,” said Miami Police Chief Manny Morales on the day of the shooting.
Shown in a photo is the gun police said was found at the scene.
“You will not see Mr. Antwan Cooper, at any time pull any gun on any person, not a police officer, not a sergeant. You not see at anytime Mr. Cooper holding a gun or brandishing a weapon, pulling any gun on any officer there,” said Rawsi Williams, the attorney representing Cooper’s family. “There was no lethal situation occurring there when the sergeant shot him in the head.”
The family’s attorney said the video only shows Cooper at first cooperating with the officer and then trying to run.
Morales met with Cooper’s family and released this statement to 7News, saying in part, “The loss of life is tragic under any circumstances, and the Miami PD holds the sanctity of life at the center of all we do.”
Morales, added that the department will continue to fully cooperate with the investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
“Antwan was my dear heart. He was mine, he was my son, he was my boy,” said Cooper’s grandmother Helen Bryant through tears.
“He could have done anything else, but he shot my son in the head,” said Cooper’s mother.
The devastated family has called for criminal charges against the police sergeant who killed Cooper.
“There was other ways to handling the situation, that’s how I feel, but to shoot him in the head like some sort of animal, that’s nowhere near justice,” said Cooper’s father Gerald Adams. “He took things into his own hands and did what he wanted to do, was clearly unprofessional and goes against their training.”
The sergeant has been placed on administrative leave.
The FDLE investigation is expected to take several months.
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