The U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal of the case involving the deaths of the Cocoa teenagers during a traffic stop

The Eleventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s decision, overturning a federal lawsuit involving a lawmaker the shooting of two Kakao teenagerssecuring another legal victory for the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office in a high-profile shooting.

The fatal shooting occurred on November 13, 2020, after Brevard deputies mistakenly followed a car with tinted windows that they believed had been stolen. Three of Cocoa’s teenagers were inside on their way to a friend’s house, court records later showed.

Deputy Japhet Santiago-Miranda fired into a car that was playing music during a traffic stop in the Cocoa neighborhood, killing the driver, 16-year-old Angelo Crooms and 18-year-old Sincer Pierce, according to investigative reports and witnesses.

“The United States Court of Appeals for the 11^thousand The Circuit’s statement, released on November 13, 2024, is a valuable and valid reminder of the violence and dangers our brave and hard-working law enforcement officers face every day,” Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey said in a statement released to FLORIDA TODAY.

“Despite Deputy Santiago-Miranda’s seven clear commands to ‘stop the vehicle!’ the driver in this case not only refused to comply, but made a conscious decision to aim and accelerate his vehicle directly at Deputy Santiago-Miranda in the line of duty.”

The civil suit was filed by prominent civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump in April 2021.

Last year, a lower court in Orlando dismissed all claims against the defendants, including Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey and deputies in the case. The court ruled that Deputy Santiago-Miranda had the authority to use deadly force, noting that he fired at least 10 shots at the vehicle as it sped toward him at less than 13 miles per hour, court records show.

After the dismissal in US court in Orlando, lawyers representing the families of Krums and Pierce took the case to the appeals court in Atlanta and asked for a review.

However, a three-judge court affirmed the lower court, finding that Santiago-Miranda had a legal right to use deadly force out of fear for his life.

“The court’s rulings in this matter confirmed our assessment that, under the circumstances of this case, Deputy Santiago-Miranda was forced to make a “split-second decision” that did not involve unreasonable or excessive force, and he did not violate the driver/plaintiffs’ constitutional rights when the driver chose to accelerate his vehicle near our deputy rather than simply pull over and comply with lawful orders,” Ivey said.

Ivey also thanked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the state attorney’s office and the Department of Justice for their independent review of the case.

Brevard State Attorney’s Office cleared Santiago-Miranda of all criminal charges, which also indicated that the 16-year-old driver was responsible for his own death. for driving the vehicle forward when the deputy warned him to stop.

Mother of a teenager: “They were already for the police”

The shooting — which followed protests surrounding another controversial case involving the 2018 death of Gregory Lloyd Edwards after a standoff with sheriff’s deputies at the Brevard County Jail — sparked local protests, national attention and prompted a visit from Crump’s attorney.

Like a number of others involving the deaths of black men or teenagers in officer-involved confrontations across the country at the time, the case raised questions about the use of deadly force and qualified immunity for law enforcement officers involved in such cases .

“They threw it out, they already made up their minds, they were already for the police,” said Cynthia Green, Pierce’s mother and a witness to the shooting, which happened just minutes after Crooms took her son from the home.

Green said she was disappointed by the three-judge panel’s decision. She also noted that the families of the two young men suffered emotional hardship while the case dragged on, with no apology offered from Sheriff Ivey or others for the mistaken shooting.

The sheriff’s office waited four days to publicly acknowledge the shooting as the teenagers’ parents waited — “painfully,” Green said — for any information about what happened to the couple from the agency.

“But where do we go from here? The case is closed,” said Green, who relayed her calls for justice to lawyers and the courts.

“No justice, no apologies, nothing. Nothing. I’m worried that this will happen again to someone’s child. Every time the police pull someone over, I’m just worried they’re going to kill someone.”

Santiago-Miranda is dead at age 35 in Osceola County, nearly a year after the shooting, after collapsing in the shower at his sister’s home in St. Cloud on Oct. 10, 2021.

J. D. Gallop is the criminal justice/breaking news reporter for FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Gallop at 321-917-4641 or [email protected]. X, formerly known as Twitter: @JDGallop.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: The Court of Appeal confirms the dismissal in the case of the murder of teenagers Koko by the deputy