A 24-year-old Cuban-American young man lost his life this Sunday, October 22, after being shot in his own home by an officer from the city of Homestead, in Miami-Dade County.
Authorities arrived at the scene after the young man’s grandmother made an emergency call to say that the young man, who had a history of mental illness, had locked himself in the bathroom of the house with a kitchen knife.
The incident occurred on Sunday afternoon, in a house located at 1298 12th Avenue and 11th Place, in the southeast of the county.
According to the media America TeVéthe elderly woman called to have police hospitalize her grandson under the Baker Act, but the incident spiraled out of control.
“I never thought this, I told him, ‘please don’t hurt my grandson,’” Caridad Roseti declared crying.
The aforementioned law regulates the obligation of a mental patient to undergo an involuntary examination in a hospital in case of suffering a crisis, but the officers ended up determining that the young man represented a risk, so they ended up shooting.
Now, the family of the Cuban-American, identified as Daniel Allen Kempf, is demanding justice, as they assure that the authorities were aware of the situation, having intervened in the home on previous occasions.
The mother of the deceased, Yaneisy Roseti, assured that there were no firearms in the house, and, although he locked himself with a knife in the bathroom, he did not represent a danger to anyone.
According to Captain Fernando Morales, spokesman for the Homestead police, an altercation occurred while the situation was being investigated, so one of the officers ended up using his firearm, ending the young man’s life.
“While an investigation was underway, a confrontation occurred with a subject, at which time a Homestead police officer was forced to discharge her firearm. The subject was declared deceased at the scene,” the officer indicated in an official statement.
The family shared photographs that show the state of their home after the unfortunate events, these show that the floor of the house ended up covered in blood, a traumatic scene for all residents.
“The police killed him there in the room, with the gun, he was sick and the police killed him, he was a sick child, but young, 24 years old, there is no forgiveness from God for that,” stressed the deceased’s grandmother.
The family maintains that the number of shots and the location in which they were carried out suggest that the young man had no place to move, so it is not explained how the young man represented such a “threat.”
“They shot my son to death. There are two holes in my wall, it means that the other shots were at my son and they killed him in the bathroom, it means that he had no place to move anywhere. What they did was a crime,” he concluded.
