MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Siblings Gabriela Cueli and Osvaldo Cueli III continue to seek a full accounting of the events leading up to when police officers shot and killed their father, Osvaldo Cueli, in the driveway of their family’s 10-acre property in southwest Miami-Dade County.
“I just see two black RAM trucks go against traffic,” said Osvaldo Cueli III. “Literally this one hadn’t even stopped moving and already started shooting. They came with no lights, this one shot out the window. I thought they were random people because they just came, no lights, no nothing. We couldn’t see through the windows because the windows were too dark.”
At the time of the late-November shooting, Miami-Dade police said detectives with their Illegal Dumping Unit responded to a call about a possible stolen car, adding that shots had been fired during the incident and that a firearm was recovered.
“I see the bullet holes start popping out and my dad is just standing there, hadn’t moved an inch,” said Osvaldo Cueli III. “I am just screaming his name and he is just standing there. He never pulled out his gun, nothing. He was just, like, frozen.”
After the shooting, Gabriela Cueli began taking video with her cellphone.
“No one is helping my dad,” she is heard yelling in the video. “I saw his eyes roll back into his head. They never once tried to save him, they never once tried to help him.”
Local 10 News has obtained cellphone video that showed Gabriela Cueli’s distraught expression as one of the plain clothes officers grabbed at her wrist.
Her father appears to still be moving but nobody is rendering aid.
“I kept telling them, ‘Please help my dad,’” she said. “They were more worried about detaining me and my brother rather than helping my father who was dying.”
“The cops were not doing anything, they were not trying to give him first aid or anything,” said Osvaldo Cueli III. “My sister and I are screaming at them the whole time, ‘You didn’t do anything to help him.’”
Attorney Richard John Diaz is uniquely positioned to address the thorny questions law enforcement will be fielding from investigators and the public. He represents plaintiffs in police use of force cases and is also a former Miami-Dade police officer. He’s not involved in this case.
“There are a lot of pieces of the puzzle that are missing that could change my views later on, but the officer attempting to restrain the girl, which could also be interpreted as his effort to prevent her from videotape, that needs to be resolved,” said Diaz. “Most stunningly is that nobody is giving any kind of comfort or assistance to the victim who was shot on the floor, who we can see is still alive. His hand moves, you can see his chest moving, he is still breathing. I guarantee if that was a Miami-Dade police officer on the ground, they would be all over him trying to give him comfort and assistance. That is what is very, very troubling.
“Even though you know he is probably going to die or not make it to the hospital, you have to try and save the life, even if he was a burglar -- which he wasn’t -- even if you thought he was an auto thief -- which he wasn’t. Once you use that deadly force, you have to then try and resuscitate the person or at least give the comfort.”
Diaz said he also doesn’t understand why the arriving officers in unmarked units and plain clothes didn’t think to request a marked unit to approach.
“You try to have uniform patrol make that first encounter, that first approach, because then there is no question that they are an officer,” he said. “From what I read (of the initial police account), this was call to a suspicious activity, maybe an auto theft. That is not a crime of violence, that is not someone getting kidnapped, carjacked -- that is not someone getting assaulted or battered, so it is always prudent to have a uniform unit arrive. Now, if that officer is 30 minutes out because you are in the Redland and you have an unmarked unit, that approach should be made with our badge out, your police vest out. You have to notify yourself, identify yourself as a police officer.
“So that is odd as well, that they did not wait for uniformed patrol for assistance, because what was the hurry? What is the rush? You set up a perimeter, you watch, you learn. It seems to me they ran in there gangbusters.”
He also responded to Osvaldo Cueli III’s claims that an officer was firing at them through their windshield.
“Firing your gun through the front windshield of a car is if there is something coming right towards you that you have to immediately try to take out because you can’t move or duck, and it is very hard for me to imagine a scenario that would justify that type of risky discharge of a firearm. There are just too many things that could go wrong,” he said. “This was an illegal dumping unit responding to a potential auto theft case. You don’t see a lot of auto thieves pulling out guns and shooting at police officers and you have to be trained to know that -- to have your guard up but to not overreact. It is a tough line to walk.”
Diaz said in his opinion, officers “ran in too fast.”
“It was too fast and too furious. I think they ran in too hard, too early. This situation did not justify the way they approached the situation,” he said. “So far, from what I have seen, based on my training at my time, there is always time to send in marked units. I mean, what is the rush? What is the hurry?”
He added, “Nowadays you have drones, helicopters, you have dogs. Especially in an area like that, there is only a limited number of access roads and if you don’t catch the guys, guess what? Here is the case card -- go make a claim with your insurance, which is what they told me when someone stole my car from my house.”
Police said the officers involved in the shooting took their allotted three administrative days following the incident and have since returned to full duty.
Miami-Dade police have not provided any additional information on the case despite all the questions about the case, including whether casings were found inside the officer’s unmarked unit.
Additionally, the police department has not fulfilled Local 10 News’ request for the 911 calls that sparked the officers’ response nor accepted an invitation to address the friction between their account and the family’s video and account.
MDPD has only said the case remains an active investigation.