HOMESTEAD, Fla. – The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating a fatal police shooting that occurred Sunday night in Homestead.
According to Capt. Fernando Morales, a spokesman for the Homestead Police Department, officers were called to a home in the 1200 block of Southeast 11th Place Sunday night.
He said while conducting an investigation, a confrontation ensued with one person at the home, at which time a police officer was forced to discharge her gun.
The man who was shot, identified by family members as Daniel Alan Kempf, 24, was pronounced dead at the scene.
No other details about what led up to the shooting were immediately released by police, however Kempf’s brother told Local 10 News reporter Annaliese Garcia that he had a history of mental illness.
“He’s been Baker Acted three or four times already,” Kempf’s brother, Thomas Kempf said. “We were trying to get him into a long term facility to get him some rehab, get him some help.”
After many years of trying to get him help, relatives say Daniel Kempf tried to take his own life.
“That didn’t work,” said Thomas Kemph. “(He) showed up with cuts on his arm.”
He said something changed in his brother a few days ago.
“The last three days – I guess four days now – he was starting to get very aggressive,” he said. “He was manic – he was laughing and laughing and laughing. I’m talking about for hours. He would just laugh for hours. He was kind of losing it.”
According to his brother, Kempf lived at the home with him and their mother, however the two weren’t at the house when the shooting occurred.
He said their grandmother had gone to the house and allowed police inside with the intention of having his brother hospitalized under Florida’s Baker Act, because he was inside a bedroom, armed with a small bread knife and had not eaten in a few days.
The brother said police officers stunned him twice before ultimately shooting him.
“Gunshots in the wall, hand prints on the bathtub -- you know, there was obviously, like, a struggle,” he said.
Kempf’s mother, Yaneitsy Rosete, told Local 10 News that she has been left distraught after losing her son.
“The last thing that he said to me was ‘I love you mom.’” she said. “That was the last thing I heard from my son.”
Thomas Kempt told Local 10 News that knew his brother needed help but didn’t think his life should’ve been taken during the incident.
“He is 5′7 (and) is like 150 pounds, he said. “He had been starving himself and he’s got screws and rods in his feet, so he is disabled. He is not a threat and there was no need to shoot him.”
“Of course you’re going to be angry, right? A lot of emotions. She’s distraught. She’s losing a son and I’m losing a brother,” Thomas Kempt added. “I had a connection with him stronger than anybody else in my life.”
The FDLE released a statement to Local 10 News Monday, saying “Agents and analysts are working to put together a timeline by interviewing any civilian and officer witnesses, processing evidence, and obtaining cell phone, surveillance, and/or body-worn camera footage. FDLE is investigating the shooting incident itself.”