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March 21, 2024Miami cop who shot distressed man on Liberty City porch, trained in crisis intervention
The Miami Police officer who shot a man on the front porch of his Liberty City home two weeks ago — and other officers at the scene — were told by his mother before the shooting that he was suffering from a mental health crisis. And when the officers arrived at the home, they first encountered Donald Lenard Armstrong in the street, according to a police report obtained by the Miami Herald.
Armstrong, 47, then somehow made his way to the porch of his home with what police said “appeared to be a pointed weapon,” before he was stunned with a Taser, then shot multiple times by an eight-year Miami police veteran trained to deal with mental health crises named Kassandra Mercado, police said.
Miami Fraternal Order of Police President Felix del Rosario called Mercado a good young officer. He said Mercado, who has also received Crisis Intervention Training, has not given investigators a statement. Mercado is believed to have fired her weapon as many as 10 times. Police haven’t said how many times Armstrong was struck or why none of the other officers at the scene fired.
“Nobody but her can say what she perceived in a split-second decision,” del Rosario said.
Almost two weeks after the shooting, police have yet to explain exactly what the “pointed weapon” was that Armstrong allegedly wielded. In Armstrong’s arrest affidavit, it’s described as a “dirk,” a rarely used term for a double-edged blade made popular by Scottish Highland soldiers in the 1700s. One person with knowledge of the incident but who asked to remain anonymous, said the object held by Armstrong appeared to be some type of musical wand.
Armstrong was arrested and charged with aggravated assault of a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest without violence. Mercado has been administratively reassigned and remains working from home. She patrols Model City, the neighborhood next to Liberty City where Armstrong was shot.
Shooting victim’s recovery
Miami Police Chief Manny Morales said he visited Armstrong in the hospital and he’s expected to make a full recovery. Morales said Armstrong’s uncle said he was high on “Molly,” a form of ecstasy that usually makes a person feel euphoric.
“He told me he was high, that he took some bad shit,” said the chief. “But he’s going to make a full recovery and hopefully it will be a life-changing experience.”
The shooting and cellphone footage that captured the moment when Armstrong was shot has drawn the ire of family members and the wrath of community organizations that make up the Healing and Justice Center in Miami.
During a gathering last week, the community groups blasted police for the incident. They also argued it could have been handled better by the Freedom House Mobile Crisis Unit, a civilian group that urges residents suffering similar crises to Armstrong to call it rather than police.
Program manager Chettarra Thompson called the police shooting a “sad, sad grave injustice.”
Video shows Miami cop opening fire
The cellphone video shows Armstrong in distress on his front porch of his home near Northwest 58th Street and Seventh Court, waving something long and thin in the air that has been described by observers as everything from a screwdriver to some type of wand. As he screams “Shoot. Shoot in the heart,” several officers aim their guns at him and repeatedly tell him to move away from someone he is standing next to on the porch, believed to be his mother, according to a neighbor who witnessed the shooting.
A woman believed to be his mother is heard pleading with police to not kill her son. Two officers fire Tasers. At one point Armstrong begins falling forward with whatever he’s holding up in the air. That’s when Mercado seems to fire the first shot. More are fired as he is falling and after he’s on the ground.
“The police life wasn’t in danger,” Armstrong’s cousin Lonnie Armstrong said Saturday. “That wasn’t called for. They didn’t have to shoot my cousin that many times.”
Two years ago, Mercado was praised by the city’s Civilian Investigative Panel for de-escalating a situation involving her partner, according to story from WTVJ Channel 6. Body camera footage showed her partner in a tense situation with another male.
At one point her partner tells someone he’s arguing with not to let the badge fool you, “I’m from Little Havana first, bro.” Mercado then gets her partner to back off before there is any force used.
Miami Herald staff writer C. Isaiah Smalls II contributed to this report.
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‘He didn’t assault anybody.’ Man shot by Miami cops amid mental health crisis charged
Donald Armstrong was shot multiple times by Miami police on his mother’s porch in Liberty City after she called 911 to protect him earlier this month. Now, a conflicting narrative has emerged: the responding officers are accusing Armstrong of assaulting them, court documents reveal.
Armstrong, 47, was charged with aggravated assault of a law enforcement officer, a felony, and resisting an officer without violence, a misdemeanor. He was booked Sunday into the Miami-Dade County Pre-Trial Detention Center and remains jailed as of Tuesday afternoon.
It’s not known when Armstrong left Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center, where he was taken for his injuries, nor the location in which he was arrested.
He appeared in bond court Monday for the misdemeanor charge — with bail set at $500. A judge has yet to grant a bond for the felony charge, though court records indicate Armstrong retained a public defender and has since pleaded not guilty.
Assistant public defender Matthew Corbett did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Miami police also didn’t comment on the arrest. In a March 8 statement, Police Chief Manuel Morales said: “Transparency and accountability to our community will always remain our goal…I pledge to ensure that our department does better in addressing calls involving mental and behavioral issues.”
“I am asking all of us to pray for Mr. Armstrong and his family during this difficult time,” he added.
What prompted police to fire 10 rounds?
Armstrong’s confrontation with officers and the subsequent 10 bullets fired at him were all caught on video by several nearby residents. A two-minute-long video went viral on social media, spurring a wave of outrage.
Police quickly divulged what they believed led up to the altercation and the cops’ decision to fire, but Armstrong’s recent arrest report goes into further detail — including the “sharp object” he allegedly possessed.
During the early afternoon of March 7, his mother, Denise Armstrong, called 911 asking for officers to come to her home, 5703 NW Seventh Court, due to his behavior, the report read.
“She stated [Armstrong] was going through an episode and possibly high on narcotics,” it read.
A group of officers confronted him on the porch of his mother’s home, where he was “armed with what appeared to be a long, sharp object.” The report described it as a “dirk,” which is a long-straight bladed dagger.
“[Armstrong] was located on the porch of the residence acting in a bizarre manner,” the report read. “He was screaming at all the officers… at one point [he] is heard yelling to the officers to shoot him in the heart.”
Police gave Armstrong “loud verbal commands” numerous times to drop the purported object. When he refused and paced away from them, an officer struck him with a stun gun, according the report.
He proceeded to remove the stun gun prongs, prompting the officer to fire a second round. Police wrote in the report he became enraged and lunged in their direction.
“[Armstrong] was shot multiple times, falling to the ground causing the object to fall out of his hand,” the report read.
The arrest form does not detail any physical interactions between Armstrong and the officers, except when they tended to his wounds. However, one form of aggravated assault deemed an arrestable offense is the “intentional, unlawful” spoken threat to commit a felony — meaning an act of “violence” is not needed to be charged, according to Florida statutes.
Armstrong was on probation when the shooting occurred, after ending a roughly 17-month prison sentence in September for charges that include aggravated battery on a pregnant woman, aggravated assault, and burglary of an unoccupied dwelling, records show. Since 2005, he’s had three stints in state prison stemming from past drug and theft charges.
‘He didn’t assault anybody’
When Lonnie Armstrong learned of his cousin Donald’s arrest, he called the aggravated assault charge “crazy.”
“He didn’t assault anybody,” Armstrong asserted.
Dr. Armen Henderson, too, was dumbfounded when he received word that Armstrong had been charged. As medical director of the Healing and Justice Center, he was one of the many activists who denounced the police shooting at a press conference on Thursday.
“They’re treating him like he’s a perpetrator when they should be treating him as a patient, as a victim of a violent crime,” Henderson said Tuesday. “It really underscores the problems that we face in the community but also, within the medical industrial complex.”
The Healing and Justice Center, a public safety program based in Liberty City and Overtown, is an organization focused on limiting Black and brown people’s exposure to the criminal justice system.
“It’s necessary for us to look at police as perpetrators of violence, specifically in Black communities,” Henderson articulated. “And in this case, you watch the video, was an officer even touched? [Armstrong] got tased. He got shot. Which officer did he get combative with? The officer that shot him?”
