The State Attorney’s Office for Miami-Dade County has found that the police shooting of a man armed with knives outside Jackson Memorial Hospital last year was justified.
New video shows Miami Police shooting a man armed with knives outside Jackson Memorial Hospital last year as the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office determined the shooting was justified, according to a memo.
Miami Police officers had been called to the Missionaries of Charity of Mother Teresa, a Catholic charity that operates a shelter for homeless women and children, shortly before 10 a.m. on Feb. 23, 2024 for a fight between two men.
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WATCH HEREBodycam video of the responding officer that would fire the shot, Joshua Nealy, shows him arriving to the soup kitchen and being shown out the back door, where he calls out for the suspect, identified as Austin Overstreet.
The officer chases Overstreet into the street and draws his gun as other officers arrive. Overstreet can be seen holding a knife, at times waving it in the air.
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Video also captures how several officers scream for him to drop the weapon. They also ask him his name.
Nealy says, "I don't want to shoot you," several times, along with, "you don't have to do this... Just drop the knife so we could talk to you."
Overstreet then runs toward Jackson Memorial Hospital with authorities in pursuit.
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"Boss, come here, listen, stop," Nealy says.
At the intersection of Northwest 9th Avenue and Northwest 17th Street, the suspect slows to a walk on the sidewalk. A police vehicle then drives toward him, and Overstreet appears to move toward Nealy on the sidewalk, who fires one shot.
Overstreet falls, and one knife falls to the ground. Still gripping the other, he says, "Kill me, shoot me, did I do anything? I haven't done anything to anybody. Shoot me."
Authorities close in and fire their Tasers, but Overstreet removes the wires, and eventually gets up, ignoring commands to stay down.
Overstreet takes off again, and officers follow. Eventually he arrives at a dead end, and while Overstreet continues to shout "shoot me," police deploy their Tasers again. The suspect grabs the wires again, until finally, one of them disables him and he falls.
Officers quickly surround him and remove the other knife. Miami police said officers rendered aid to the suspect and he was treated at JMH.
Afterwards, Nealy is approached and asked if he fired his weapon and if anyone was hit, and he replies that he did, and that the suspect was shot.
The investigation into the shooting concluded that the suspect "initiated the threat of deadly force by resisting officers and making a 'big motion' towards Officer Nealy with a knife... it is reasonable to believe that Officer Nealy feared for his life and or great bodily harm and considered it necessary to use deadly force in order to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or others. Therefore, we find that the action of Officer Nealy was legally justified."
