Family Of Woman Shot By FHP Trooper Seeks Justice, Hires Civil Rights Attorney
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) - The family of a woman who was shot by a Florida Highway Patrol trooper and subsequently died has secured the services of a civil rights and personal injury attorney.
Attorney Ben Crump held a press conference on Tuesday to address the shooting death of Latasha Walton, 32, of Pompano Beach, on March 12.
Walton's loved ones are deeply troubled.
They say the trooper who was reportedly "in fear for his life" went too far.
Crump has written a letter to U.S. Attorney General William Barr, asking him to intervene as those relatives speak out.
"You saw the woman. Why did you shoot her down like a dog in the street. She did not put your life in jeopardy. Why did you do that?" said Allison Wright, Walton's sister.
Wright has seen this cell phone video, again and again, showing the moments before her sister Latasha drives her car over a curb and around a trooper's vehicle.
"That officer, how can you shoot her. You do not know what you have done to my family," Wright said.
The PBA says Walton used her car as a weapon endangering FHP trooper Ronald Melendez-Bonilla.
But family attorney says the shots you hear being fired were overkill.
"You will see the car never hits the trooper. It is completely unjustifiable. He shot 6 bullets into a vehicle over a traffic stop," Crump said.
"They dropped her for driving erratically. This was not the cause to issue a death sentence."
"You should not have done this. You could have shot out the tires. You are trained to use other tactics. You don't have to go to extremes," said Wright.
Walton was in the car with her boyfriend at the time of the shooting.
"Why must you use unexpected force. It's a traffic stop. Why did you have to kill her? Why is there so much rage? Why is there so much hatred? You don't know if she had a child in the car. If she was pregnant."
Walton was the mother of 2 children.
"Just want to say that we are devastated and we are looking for answers." Said Crystal, Walton's cousin. "He robbed her of her life and it was not supposed to go this way."
"She had a heart of gold," said Alphonso Wright Jr., Walton's brother. "I don't think she should have been executed like that."
The family's legal team says this case should be examined bullet by bullet and that involves the justification for firing 6 bullets. Attorneys say the case needs a criminal investigation.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating this shooting which is standard procedure.
The incident, which was caught on cell phone video, appears to show the moment a Florida Highway Trooper opened fire on Walton near the Golden Glades Park'N'Ride.
Witnesses say Walton had been driving erratically before she was shot.
WATCH THE VIDEO IN THE PLAYER BELOW
"In these situations, if people would just stop and out their hands up, this could have all been avoided," said Steadman Stahl, the President of the Miami-Dade P.B.A. "It was a traffic stop. She was driving erratically and when she stopped the officer approached her car. She accelerated towards him and he had no other choice because he was in fear for his life to shoot the driver."
Stahl said "A motor vehicle is a deadly weapon and it kills people if used improperly and that was what happened here. The officer is lucky to be alive. We are just happy the officer was ok to go home. This was a tragic situation. Nobody wants to start their shift taking a life like this."
The video begins as a white BMW is seen trying crossing traffic and trooper standing outside of a patrol car fires several shots at.
It happened when the trooper pulled over the driver of a white BMW near the Golden Glades Park & Ride lot around 7:30 p.m.
"One of our troopers was engaged in a traffic stop just outside the Park & Ride on State Road 7. For unknown reasons, there was some type of confrontation between the trooper and the driver at which time the trooper discharged his firearm into the vehicle and fatally struck the driver," said FHP Major Chris Dellapietra.
A driver sitting at a light recorded the shooting on his cellphone.
In the video, a trooper appears to open fire on the car as it begins to drive away. As it crosses traffic, the car slows to a crawl.
"Yeah they shot that (expletive) up, that person probably dead," a man can be heard saying on the video.
A trooper can be seen stumbling and then running after it with his gun drawn.
As more FHP cruisers arrive, the video moves back to the car where troopers have surrounded someone on the ground with his hands behind his back.
The FHP has not said who this person was or he was connected to the incident.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the incident.
Heather Romano, a witness, told CBS4's Peter D'Oench, "We saw the car running from police. They got here and made a U-turn and cops surrounded the car and it got in the middle of the street. They told the driver to get out of the car but he proceeded to go on and the cops opened fire. They fired at least 5 times."
"I don't know if the trooper got hit or not but I saw him go down on the ground," she said. "I thought the car hit him because he fell down on the ground. I agree that you can not use your car as a weapon."
