The family of a man shot and killed by Miami police during a confrontation following a traffic stop last year is speaking out after learning the sergeant who fired the fatal shot won't be charged.
The Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office said Sgt. Constant Rosewood was legally justified in the March 8 shooting of 34-year-old Antwon Cooper, according to a close-out memo obtained this week.
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Cooper had been pulled over for speeding in a car with illegal tinted windows by another officer. Officials said Cooper and the officer got into a scuffle and fell to the ground.
Rosemond arrived at the scene and found Cooper on top of the officer, shouted several commands at Cooper that "went unheeded," then shot Cooper once, killing him, the close-out memo said.
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The encounter was captured by Gonzalez's body worn camera.
The report indicated one weapon was found on the ground near Cooper and that the officer's firearm was also within reach.
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"We find it reasonable for Rosemond to believe that deadly force was necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to Officer Gonzalez, himself and/or another," the memo said. "He arrived on scene to find Cooper on top of Officer Gonzalez, with Gonzalez doing all he could do to control Cooper's hands and keep Cooper from grabbing one of several weapons which were readily available and within reach of Cooper."
Cooper's family and their attorney said they have been patient all the months that it took to investigate this shooting, but said they wanted Rosemond prosecuted.
"I don’t have the words. I don't have the words," Cooper's grandfather said in a phone interview Thursday. "I am never going to forget it. It’s not a day go by I don’t think about my grandson and what the police did to him."
"The reaction that I had when I received the news, when I received that news, it was like a knife done stuck me in my heart and just twisted it," Cooper's grandmother said.
In addition to disagreeing with the findings, the family’s attorney, Rawsi Williams, said the state attorney never told them the report had been completed and released on the state attorney's website on Dec. 9th.
"Quite frankly we can’t believe the state attorney came up with this decision," Williams said. "Until yesterday January 4th, 2023, we had no notice that that had been done. Had the press not reached out to us we would have still been thinking we were cooperating and being patient as the victims not know they already closed this out."
The NAACP said they too asked the state attorney to be kept up to speed about Cooper’s case, but were also left in the dark.
"We were not even notified. We are always asked to honor and respect due process, that goes both ways," said Daniella Pierre, the NAACP President for Miami-Dade. "We feel that we were kept out of the loop."
"I will never forgive the state attorney’s office. I will never forgive for what they did to my grandson," Cooper's grandfather said.
Miami-Dade State Attorney Kathy Fernandez Rundle said that the notification slipped through the cracks during the holidays, when they reduce the number people on duty.
Fernandez Rundle said she is apologizing to Cooper’s family, Williams, and the NAACP and already said she had reached out to all of them to be able to meet soon and answer the family’s questions and concerns.
Fernandez Rundle emphasized that she has made keeping families informed a priority and does so as soon as the law allows.
Williams said very soon the family will officially be filing a lawsuit against the officers and city.
Tommy Reyes with the Fraternal Order of Police, which represents Miami officers, released a statement Thursday on the matter.
"The Miami Fraternal Order of Police, has stood firmly with Sgt. Rosemond throughout this process and will continue to stand with him. Sgt. Rosemond acted selflessly to protect his subordinate police officer, and the Miami Dade County State’s Attorneys has now affirmed that. We cannot comment further as the internal investigation is still ongoing," the statement read.
