The appeals court upholds the dismissal in the killing of Cocoa teenagers by a sheriff's deputy

Federal court upholds dismissal of case involving Cocoa teens shot by Brevard deputy during mistaken traffic stop

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed a lower court’s ruling quashing a federal lawsuit involving the deputy shooting of two Cocoa teenagersdelivering another legal victory for the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office in the high-profile shooting.

The fatal shooting occurred on November 13, 2020, after Brevard officers accidentally followed a car with tinted windows that they believed was stolen. Three Cocoa teens were inside, on their way to a friend’s house, court records said.

Deputy Jafet Santiago-Miranda shot at the car, which was playing booming music, during the traffic stop in a Cocoa neighborhood, killing the driver, Angelo Croom, 16, and Sincere Pierce, 18, according to investigative records and witnesses.

““The United States Court of Appeals for the 11^e The Circuit’s statement, released publicly on November 13, 2024, is a much-appreciated and well-reasoned reminder of the violence and dangers our brave and hardworking law enforcement officers face every day,” Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey said in a statement to FLORIDA TODAY.

“Despite Deputy Santiago-Miranda issuing seven different commands to ‘stop the vehicle!’ the driver in this case not only refused to comply, but then made the deliberate decision to point his vehicle directly at Deputy Santiago-Miranda and accelerate while on duty.

The civil lawsuit was filed in April 2021 by prominent civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump.

A lower court in Orlando had dismissed all claims against the defendants, including Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey and the deputies, in the case last year. The court found that Deputy Santiago-Miranda was justified in his use of deadly force, noting that he fired at least 10 shots into the vehicle as it moved toward him at less than 13 miles per hour, according to court records. the court records.

Following the dismissal in U.S. District Court in Orlando, attorneys representing the families of Croom and Pierce took the case to the appeals court in Atlanta and asked for review.

However, the three-panel court upheld that of the lower court, ruling that Santiago-Miranda had the legal right to use deadly force out of fear for his life.

“The court’s judgments in this case have affirmed our assessment that under the circumstances of this case, Deputy Santiago-Miranda was compelled to render a “split-second judgment” that did not involve an unreasonable or excessive use of force or violate constitutional rights of the driver/plaintiffs when the driver chose to accelerate his vehicle at our deputy rather than simply stop and obey lawful commands,” Ivey stated.

Ivey also thanked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the State Attorney’s Office and the Department of Justice for independent reviews of the case.

Santiago-Miranda was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing by the Brevard District Attorney’s Office, which also pointed out that the 16-year-old driver bore responsibility for his own death. for driving the vehicle forward while the deputy warned him to stop.

Mother of teenager: ‘They were already in favor of the police’

The shooting — which followed protests surrounding another controversial case involving the 2018 death of Gregory Lloyd Edwards after a confrontation with deputies at the Brevard County Jail — sparked local protests, drew national attention and prompted visits from attorney Crump.

Like several others involving black men or teenagers killed in officer confrontations across the country at the time, the case raised questions about the use of deadly force and qualified immunity for law enforcement officers involved in such cases.

“They threw it away, they had already made up their minds, they were already before the police,” said Cynthia Green, Pierce’s mother and witness to the shooting that happened moments after Croom picked up her son from her home.

Green said she was disappointed in the three-judge panel’s decision. She also pointed out that the families of the two young men struggled emotionally as the case dragged on, with no apology from Sheriff Ivey or others for the erroneous shooting.

The sheriff’s office waited four days to publicly acknowledge the shooting, while the teens’ parents waited — according to Green, “painfully” — for any word from police about what happened to the couple.

“But where do we go from here? The case is over,” said Green, who took her calls for justice to lawyers and the courts.

“No justice, no excuses, nothing. Nothing. I worry about this happening again to someone else’s child. Every time the police stop someone, all I worry about is that they’re going to kill someone.”

Santiago Miranda has passed away at age 35 in Osceola County, nearly a year after the shootings, after collapsing in the shower at his sister’s home in St. Cloud on Oct. 10, 2021.

JD gallop is a criminal justice/breaking news reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Gallop at 321-917-4641 or [email protected]. X, formerly known as Twitter: @JDGallop.