FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump held a news conference Wednesday at the Broward Law Office of the Public Defender in Fort Lauderdale to announce a federal civil case after a police shooting paralyzed a man from the waist down in Hollywood.
Martin Ortiz called 911 on July 3, 2021, to ask for help during a mental health emergency that included chest pains. In an effort to calm down, he decided to take a shower, so when fire rescue personnel arrived he couldn’t hear them, according to the lawsuit.
When Ortiz heard the knocking, he opened the door, spoke incoherently, and acted erratically in front of city employees, according to the lawsuit. Fire rescue personnel placed him on the ground before officers gained control of him.
“My life got destroyed and not only my life, my mom’s, and my life got destroyed. My mom is taking care of her son that is like more than 40 years old and she’s treating me like I am 6 months old,” Ortiz, 43, said.
Surveillance video shows officers restraining Ortiz and placing him on the ground, according to Crump. Attorney Hunter Shkolnik, Crump’s co-counsel, said an officer then shot Ortiz in the back while he was handcuffed, naked, and unarmed.
“You don’t shoot a man who is on the ground naked,” Shkolnik said.
Attorneys filed the 23-page civil lawsuit on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida against the city of Hollywood, the Hollywood Police Department, the Hollywood Fire Rescue and Beach Safety Department, and three police officers: Henry Andrews, Jhonny Jimenez, and Diante Roots.
Roots used his Taser to shoot Ortiz and while he was in pain police officers and paramedics dragged him to the elevator before Andrews pulled out his gun, placed it on Ortiz’s back, and shot him, according to the lawsuit.
“You don’t do this to your citizens, and if you do it, you’re going to pay them for it,” Shkolnik said.
Jimenez attempted to help Ortiz and check his vitals, according to the lawsuit. Earlier this year, the city claimed Andrews — who remains on administrative duty — meant to grab his Taser and not his gun.
Crump and Shkolnik said Andrews was trained and should have known it was his gun.
“Officers have to be held to a higher standard,” Attorney Sue-Ann Robinson, Crump’s co-counsel, said.
Shkolnik said Ortiz owes the local hospital about $3 million.
“His family deserves to give him the best quality of health that anybody could ask for knowing that these were the government officials that caused him to suffer these tragic injuries,” said Crump, who recently accepted the NAACP’s Social Justice Impact Award.
Prosecutors charged Andrews with misdemeanor culpable negligence in September. Robinson said the misdemeanor case in Broward County is still pending, so the judge, in that case, has to approve the public release of the surveillance video.
“The officer is just getting a slap on the wrist,” Crump said. “And you compare that to what Michael Ortiz is having to live with and you say, ‘How is that fair?’”
A city spokesperson released a statement saying they will not comment on pending litigation.
Read the lawsuit filed on Tuesday
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