HOMESTEAD, Fla. – One day after protesters demonstrated at Homestead City Hall over a 2022 police encounter, Miami-Dade prosecutors released raw, unedited footage it used, in part, to determine that no criminal charges would be filed against the officers involved.
One of the protest organizers obtained the body camera video of the incident, which he claimed shows Homestead police officers harassing a group of men for drinking beer outside of a store.
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, Agosto Mateo, is seen with a bloody nose while police struggle to detain him.
Police said the full video tells the whole story.
“Optically, it looks horrible, right, you have a lot of blood flowing, but it does not set aside the fact that this person was actively resisting the officer,” Homestead police Capt. Fernando Morales said.
Police said that’s what led to the use of force. They noted that they’ve responded to complaints of people drinking in public at the store before.
They said Mateo was told multiple times to put his hands behind his back and refused.
Police tried to use pepper spray, but they said Mateo kicked and bent the pinky finger of one of the officers.
“That point was when the officer delivered the closed-hand strike,” Morales said. “What caused the bloody nose is when he delivered a knee strike, which is also authorized.”
The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office would later clear the officers after police asked them to review the case.
No officers were ever placed on leave, but officials said that after the SAO review, Homestead’s police chief ordered more use of force and ethics training for officers.
Prosecutors were never able to make contact with Mateo, who was ordered to be removed from the country last April.
Watch the raw footage: