SOUTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) - It was a tragic takedown at a Southwest Miami-Dade farm when police shot and killed a man who, they said, was armed with a gun. Now, his children are speaking out.
“The cops shot my dad, the cops shot my dad,” said Gabriela Cueli in a recorded video in the aftermath of her father’s death.
On Nov. 29, 2023, 22-year-old Gabriela was behind the camera when her father, 59-year-old Osvaldo Cueli, was shot by police in his driveway.
“We’re living a nightmare, in all honesty,” Gabriela said. “I never thought my dad would die like this.”
Ever since that tragic day, Osvaldo’s children are still trying to figure out why this happened.
Before the shooting happened, 19-year-old Osvaldo Cueli, who shares the same name with his father, said they ran off people trespassing on their 10-acre farm, located at Southwest 182nd Avenue and 192nd Street, twice on the same day.
“My dad honked the horn like that twice and then they saw us and instantly started running,” Osvaldo said.
Osvaldo also said that his father took a gun with him the third time when he checked for intruders and drove his car to the front gate, while he followed his father in a golf cart, at around 3 p.m.
Then, two black trucks pulled up.
“One pulls up this way, and one pulls out there. As he turns around, they are already shooting at him,” he said.
Osvaldo said he had no idea that the people who arrived were police.
“I thought they were random people trying to kill us. There was no light, there was no sirens. There was not one word spoken. They just started shooting out of the car,” he said.
“Did you see your father point the weapon?” the reporter asked.
“No.” he said.
“Did your father fire a weapon?” asked the reporter?
“No.” he said.
According to Miami-Dade Police, unmarked vehicles were checking out reports of a stolen car that looked a lot like the one the father parked. When they arrived, the man coming out of the car produced a gun, and that’s when shots were fired.
“That’s when the subject, armed with a firearm, produced a firearm, and that’s when shots were fired,” said MDPD Detective Alvaro Zabaleta.
Police said the victim fired multiple shots at the unmarked truck and that was when officers returned fire.
The video, recorded by the children, shows them yelling at the officers after the father was shot dead.
“Why? He’s not breathing!’ Gabriela yells in tears.
After Osvaldo was down, his children watched as, they said, nothing was done to help their dying father.
“They walked all over him, like a rag doll, as if he was nothing, as if he was trash on the floor,” said Gabriela. “They did not care. Smiling all in our faces, telling us, ‘Everything is going to be OK, everything’s fine.’ There was no ambulance, there was no airlift; nothing was done to try to help him.”
The man’s children added the plainclothes officers never identified themselves.
Nearly three months later, they are sharing video of their nightmare as they wait for the outcome of a Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation.
“Get justice for my dad. He was murdered; he didn’t deserve that,” said Osvaldo.
“They just – they killed him. They didn’t try to help him at all,” said Gabriela.
The car that officers were called to investigate was not the stolen car they were looking for.
Osvaldo Cueli’s children said they were both interviewed by the FDLE, and they’ve retained an attorney.
Copyright 2024 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.