SURFSIDE, FLA. (WSVN) - A young girl said she was followed home by a strange man, but when her family talked to officers, they said things did not go well.
It’s June 16, and a teen had called police for help after she said she was followed by a stranger while walking home from work at 11 p.m.
“He starts like, walking with me saying how like, he wants to take me on these dates,” said the teen to the officer.
The 16-year-old eventually made it home safely and reported the incident to police, but when Surfside officers came to her house, she was fearful for a second time.
“Get her,” said the officer to the teen.
She was told to get her mother, who comes out of the house. What happened next was not on the body camera footage. Her mother believes it was edited out.
“It’s muted for a while,” said Andrea Munoz, the teen’s mother. “We were being harassed.”
Munoz requested the video.
“I said, ‘Why are you yelling at us?’ and it’s not there,” said Munoz.
Body camera footage shows this instead…
Andrea Munoz: “This is really hostile. I’m actually nervous.”
Officer: “Why is it hostile?”
Teen: “I’m nervous too.”
Officer: “You should be nervous, because somebody followed you home that you don’t know.”
Andrea Munoz: “I feel like it’s an interrogation.”
Officer: “It is an interrogation.”
Andrea Munoz: “Because I don’t like the way that you’re speaking to us.”
Before this, there was another tense talk with the girl’s 19-year-old brother.
“They removed me being there entirely,” said the teen’s brother, Dominick Munoz.
Dominick said his conversation must have been cut from the footage too. He first greeted officers with his sister.
“‘Do you understand what happened today?'” said Dominick, quoting police, “and he’s screaming at us like it’s our fault.”
He said officers asked the girl if she was doing drugs because her eyes were red.
“She was crying, and that’s why her eyes were red,” said Munoz.
Dominick said he felt so intimidated, he went back into the family home.
“I’m nervous. I don’t like it,” said Munoz.
Later, Munoz did too.
“I told him, ‘You are scaring us. I am nervous,'” said Munoz.
“Why a mother wouldn’t want to stand around her daughter that’s accusing of something, I have no idea,” said the officer.
“He’s trying to make me feel bad about removing myself,” said Munoz.
Munoz didn’t stay outside because she said she did not feel safe.
“I did not feel safe,” said Munoz.
Once she went inside, Dominick returned. The officer questioned the girl.
Officer to teen: “Where were you when that happened?”
Teen: “I was like, near, like, OK, all the way down there…”
Officer: “OK, I don’t know what, ‘All the way down there is.’ Like, I don’t know, like, where like, all the way, like, on like, like all the way is. Where is that?”
“I am mortified,” said Munoz.
“They’re gonna be standing here, mocking us, in front of our own home,” said Dominick.
Munoz reached out to Surfside Police Chief Rogelio Torres, saying she wanted to file a complaint and see the police body cam footage. Now that she has seen the video, she’s convinced some of the encounter was strategically removed.
“They are not being fully honest,” said Munoz.
She said her daughter remains traumatized.
“They humiliated her,” said Munoz.
The Surfside Police Department responded to 7News for an interview, saying that they won’t give an interview just yet if at all, but they released a statement saying, “The incident was handled in compliance with department policies and procedures … After the complaint was received, on the following day, the chief of police contacted the juvenile’s mother to address her concerns and offered her the option to review the un-redacted body-worn camera footage to her residence for review; However, both offers were declined.”
7News asked Munoz if that happened. She said though they offered to have her come to the station, they never asked if they could come to her home.
Later that night, things did seem to calm down. At least one of the officers walked the girl up and down the street looking for the man and even trying to get surveillance footage. They were unable to do so.
7News also requested an interview Tuesday, with any ranking member of the police department or the mayor of Surfside.
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