Family of Miami street artist killed in police Taser incident stage rally

Supporters of a teenage graffiti artist who died from cardiac arrest caused by the jolt from a police Taser on Monday stepped up their campaign for the prosecution of the Miami Beach officer who fired the fatal shot.

The friends and family of Israel Hernandez staged a rally outside the office of Miami-Dade state attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, calling for criminal charges against police officer Jorge Mercado.

The rally followed the release of a medical examiner’s report which confirmed that Hernandez, 18, died as a result of “heart failure from electrical device discharge” shortly after an August 2013 confrontation in which he ran from police who found him spray painting an abandoned McDonald’s restaurant.

“The report is saying what we have known for seven months. Israel was killed by Jorge Mercado in violation of state law and Miami Beach policy,” said Jorge Estomba of the Justice for Reefa Committee, named after the teenager’s handle as a street artist.

“Israel’s killer has neither spent a day in jail for his crime nor has he lost his job as a police officer. Every day that goes by in which state attorney Rundle does not arrest him is a day in which justice is not served for the people of Miami.”

Mercado has previously been accused of using excessive force and is mentioned in the wrongful death lawsuit filed against the Miami Beach police department by Hernandez’s family in civil court.

The family’s attorneys point out that had he lived, Hernandez would have faced only the possibility of a second-degree misdemeanour charge for property damage and might not even have been arrested. “Officers had no reasonable basis to fear for their own safety or the safety of the public,” the lawsuit claims.

But Ray Martinez, the Miami Beach police chief, has insisted that Mercado, one of several officers present, was “forced to use the Taser to avoid a physical incident” and that he was acting within department guidelines.

Martinez added that he had asked the independent Police Executive Research Forum to look at his department’s policies regarding Taser use, and that he would not be surprised if the group recommended changes.

The department currently issues guidelines to officers to avoid striking a suspect in the eyes, face or groin, but does not require them to avoid firing at the chest, something the Arizona-based manufacturer of the Tasers warns to avoid, due to the “low risk” of cardiac problems.

The city’s lawyers are expected to defend the lawsuit by pointing out that the medical examiner found that Hernandez, a Colombian immigrant, had marijuana in his system, and that the report also ruled his death an accident.

Fernandez Rundle launched an investigation into the incident, the results of which might not be known for several months, according to Ed Griffith, spokesman for the state attorney’s office.

“The medical examiner’s report is just one piece of the investigation,” he told the Guardian. “We cannot say too much because this is potentially a criminal investigation.”

He said Fernandez Rundle was unable to meet with the protestors in person on Monday because the family had appointed lawyers, with whom she had already spoken.

“We’re all parents, and our hearts go out to his family and all of his friends,” Fernandez Rundle told the Miami Herald. “We understand everyone is waiting for our final conclusion, and we will do it as quickly as humanly possible, without compromising of course.”

The death of Hernandez, a graduate of Miami Beach Senior High School and an aspiring artist who had won several local awards for his work, is among a number of recent similar fatalities involving police Tasers in the Miami area.

Willie Sams, 21, died on 5 February after a confrontation with officers from the Miami-Dade police department, a separate agency. Maykel Barrera, 37, died after fighting with Miami-Dade police on 27 February, the same day an officer in Hialeah shocked Treon Johnson, 27, as he beat a dog in his backyard with a metal pipe.

Many previous Taser deaths have been attributed to “excited delirium”, a controversial diagnosis which according to the American Civil Liberties Union is often used to cover up heavy-handed tactics by police.

Offir Hernandez, Israel’s sister, was among the protestors at Fernandez Rundle’s office on Monday.

“What kind of police officers are they, sent on the street to protect us?,” she said. “It’s more like us protecting ourselves from them. How can we live in such a society where they killed a young boy?”