Feb 6 2013

The Leto Law Firm and Dean-Kluger Sibley Law filed suit against the Miami-Dade County Police Department and 13 officers, alleging that the Miami-Dade Police Department and its officers violated the Constitutional rights of Antonio Andrew by staging a phony robbery, ambushing Andrew and several other men in unmarked SUVs, and shooting and killing Andrew, 2 other members of the crew and the confidential informant that helped the police set up this sting operation.  These actions by the police department amounted to a violation of Antonio Andrew’s Constitutional Rights.

During the year 2011, the Miami-Dade County Police Department became aware of a crew of men who were robbing known drug dealers.  The crew was armed and would stake out homes where they thought drugs and money were stashed.  When the police began their operation to stop this crew from operating, they were able to infiltrate the crew and flip one of the crew members into a police informant.  That informant was used by police to stage a phony robbery in the Redlands section of Miami.  The police told the informant to tell the crew that there was a drug house in the Redlands that should be targeted.  The informant was also was told to inform the crew that the house could be guarded with armed drug dealers.  As a result of this information  supplied by police to the informant, the crew came armed.  Police claim that they told the informant to remain in the vehicle in order to ensure his safety.

When the crew arrived at the house, for reasons still unknown, the informant joined them and approached the house. Suddenly, several black SUVs surrounded the house.  Men dressed in all black jumped out of the SUVs and surrounded the crew.  The 4 men in the crew ran for safety but before they could escape, they were gunned down in a barrage of hundreds of bullets.  When the gunfire ceased, all 4 men, including the informant, were dead.  Not one single bullet was fired by the 4 dead men.  The men dressed in black in the black SUVs were all members of a Miami-Dade Police task force known as SRT or STOP.  None of them were dressed in police uniforms and none of their vehicles were either marked or lighted.  As far as the 4 man crew was concerned, these shooters were the drug dealers that the informant told them to expect.

According to the information gathered, Antonio’s body was discovered at the perimeter of the property, face down and full of bullets.  Bullet holes were present in his back and open hands.  At the time he was killed, he was running away and posed no threat of harm to the officers that killed him.

No one will dispute that Antonio was engaging in criminal activity when he died.  But his criminal enterprise does not erase his Constitutional rights.

Our Constitution is a sacred document and within the Constitution, our citizens are given certain rights.  Those rights include a right to be considered innocent until proven guilty, a right to a trial by a jury of our peers, a right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment and a right against unlawful detainment.  In this case, each of the allegations against the police department and the officers cites to violations of the most sacred rights that every citizen enjoys.  Whether Antonio Andrew and the rest of the crew were committing a crime is not the issue.  Our society does not permit police officers to administer death sentences to people accused of crimes.  In this case, the Estate of Antonio Andrew alleges that is precisely what occurred.  Antonio is survived by his 18 year old son, Antonio, Jr.

A copy of the Complaint filed against Miami-Dade County and the police officers can be read here…Estate of Antonio Andrew v. Miami Dade County, et al

Here at the Leto Law Firm, our wrongful death lawyers and brain injury lawyers work tirelessly to ensure that justice is served.