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Protest held outside Homestead City Hall over alleged mistreatment by police officers

Homestead police says body camera video being shown by protestors is ‘highly edited’

(WPLG)

HOMESTEAD, Fla. – A protest held on Sunday outside Homestead City Hall centered around an incident that occurred in 2022.

One of the organizers obtained the body camera video of the incident, which he said shows Homestead police officers harassing a group of men for drinking beer.

The body camera video starts with a police officer approaching a man who was drinking beer with a group of people. The video cuts to after things apparently escalated, with the man refusing to give the officer his name.

Eventually, the man is seen with a bloody nose while police struggle to detain him.

Romero Ortera obtained the body camera video, and he’s now speaking out and organizing a protest in front of Homestead City Hall, denouncing what he said are some officers who cross the line.

He said only now, in January of 2024, has he been able to obtain the video which is considered public record.

Ortera and others in the city said they want answers from the Homestead Police Department.

Local 10 News reached out to Homestead police, which said the video has been edited, adding that the group of men in the video had been warned not to loiter and leave behind trash outside of a business, and that the situation escalated when the man resisted.

Here is the department’s full statement:

“The Homestead Police Department can confirm that an incident did occur. The Homestead Police Department is also aware that a highly edited version of the video is being circulated on social media which makes the incident seem much more severe than what occurred on that day... The SAO (State Attorney’s Office) determined that our officers had reacted and responded within the parameters of the Use of Force Continuum and that no criminal charges were to be filed.”

Homestead Police Captain Freddy Morales also said it was determined that the man had a bloody nose because as he was resisting and pulling the fingers of the officers, he took a knee to the face during the effort to restrain him.

Local 10 News requested the full, unedited version of that video. The video sent to Local 10 Monday by the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office can be viewed below:


About the Author
Cody Weddle headshot

Cody Weddle joined Local 10 News as a full-time reporter in South Florida in August of 2022. Before that, Cody worked regularly with Local 10 since January of 2017 as a foreign correspondent in Venezuela and Colombia.

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