(MENAFNEditorial)
May 11 2015
Fort Lauderdale FL. - - A 33 year old African American man carrying an unloaded air rifle lying across his shoulders and behind his head while walking to his apartment was shot from behind and killed by a Broward County Sheriff’s deputy on July 31 2013. A major cover-up of the true facts surrounding the shooting followed extending all the way up to the Sheriff a lawsuit filed yesterday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida charges.
Jermaine McBean an information technology engineer with a Fort Lauderdale advertising firm had not pointed the air rifle at anyone or threatened anyone when he was felled by multiple shots on July 31 2013 according to a key eyewitness who originally called 911. The eyewitness reported that McBean was simply carrying the unloaded air rifle behind his head with his arms resting across it when the deputy opened fire.
A deputy “intentionally recklessly and in cold blood shot to death a beloved dynamic thirty-three year old African-American engineer “ wrote David Schoen attorney for McBean’s family.
The shooting has been ruled a homicide. A civil wrongful death suit filed today in federal court alleges a grossly unlawful shooting by an inexperienced Sheriff’s deputy a cover-up of evidence extending all the way up to the Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel and a denial of medical care among other charges against the shooter the Sheriff other law enforcement personnel. The lawsuit was filed by Mr. McBean’s mother after a 21 month investigation conducted by an experienced civil rights attorney and a former Miami homicide detective retained by the family.
Mr. McBean’s family gave County officials notice of their intent to sue 16 months ago with the hope for a response and the hope that the State Attorney would present the case to a grand jury.
Notwithstanding the fact that the law requires all such cases to be brought before a grand jury some 21 months later the case still has not been brought before a grand jury by the State Attorney’s office.
McBean had no criminal record and had a Master’s degree in computer science. His graduate adviser remembered him as perhaps his most brilliant student – and his kindest. His employer brought in grief counselors following news of the beloved employee’s homicide.
McBean had purchased the completely legal unloaded air rifle on a whim perhaps as a gift at a pawn shop just blocks from his home in the Oakland Park section of Fort Lauderdale and was walking home with it – on his neck and slung across his shoulders listening to music with his headphones on. The bag the air rifle was wrapped in blew off and into traffic while he was walking home.
911 callers alerted the Sheriff’s office but emphasized McBean wasn’t threatening anyone and that “it” did not look like a real gun. He was just walking with it they reported to 911.
Sheriff’s deputies followed McBean for at least ten minutes while he walked past a bank and stores toward his home at the Greentree Apartments in Oakland Park. They had many opportunities to approach and question him without any risk to themselves or others; but they chose to let him keep walking following behind him with their guns drawn. He never knew they were behind him as he walked listening to his music.
He was in the apartment complex headed toward his apartment when the sheriff’s deputies shouted to him from behind to “drop the weapon.”
He couldn’t hear them. His ear buds were inside his ears with his music playing.
A deputy with only a short period of field experience opened fire and kept shooting killing McBean. The more experienced supervisors on the scene held their fire.
As he lay dying and looked up and saw the deputies McBean moaned “It was only a B.B. gun” according to witnesses.
McBean “never had a chance” according to the eyewitness.
The deputy who shot McBean is Peter Peraza newly in the field with a weapon after years working in the Broward County jail. He was returned to the field almost immediately and the BSO claimed that Peraza shot out of fear for his own life when a “rifle” was pointed at him. That claim is directly refuted by the key eyewitness and the key forensic evidence
The lawsuit also charges:
+ : Sheriff’s deputies including Perazarefused to let a registered nurse administer medical aid to McBean. She had run downstairs from her second floor apartment when she saw what happened. The deputies chased her away.
+ Sheriff’s deputies covered up critical evidence including the fact that McBean was wearing headphones and swore that he was not. This was demonstrably false.
+ A Broward County medical examiner’s report directly contradicts the Sheriff’s claim and Peraza’s sworn statement that Jermaine had turned and was pointing the air rifle at him when he was shot.
+ Peraza and BSO Sgt. Richard Lacerra on the scene with him at the time of the homicide both received the coveted Gold Cross award for outstanding bravery in the line of duty shortly after the shooting and while the case purportedly was still under investigation. They were recommended for the award by a Lieutenant who also was involved in the shooting. Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel gave them the award at the African American Research Library based on a completely false rendition of the facts surrounding the shooting. The lawsuit charges that the award was one more step in the elaborate orchestrated cover-up of the true facts.
+ In the past few years approximately 66 employees of the Broward Sheriff’s Office have been arrested and charged with crimes including armed kidnapping battery narcotics trafficking falsifying records and more. In 2013 alone there were grand jury investigations opened against at least 16 BSO deputies based on the death of a civilian as a result of the deputy’s actions. One deputy is the subject of grand jury investigations for the death of two different civilians at his hands just weeks apart right around the time Jermaine McBean was killed. Typically in such cases the grand jury investigation has been opened but no evidence actually is presented to the grand jury for years if at all.
A copy of the lawsuit is available on PACER. The case is Young v. Peraza et al. 15-CV-60968-JIC in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
For further information please contact David Schoen attorney at law: at Schoenlawfirm@gmail.com
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