MIAMI - A Miami-Dade County police officer will have to face a lawsuit alleging he shot up a car in a restaurant drive-thru to apprehend a suspect who wasn't in it.
Three people thought they were picking up dinner in a drive-thru at Wings on Fire, at NW 66th St. and NW 22nd Ave. in Miami in December 2019. Instead, they had to fight off a man fleeing police who tried to enter their car, then speed off when Officer Juan Rodriguez started shooting at them.
On July 13, federal judge Rodolfo Ruiz II granted Miami-Dade County's motion to dismiss two claims against it but denied Rodriguez's attempt to toss an excessive force claim made against him.
"(T)he Court concludes that Officer Rodriguez's use of deadly force was excessive under these factual circumstances and was accordingly unreasonable," Ruiz II wrote.
"Specifically... the Court concludes that Officer Rodriguez's intentional firing of multiple shots at Plaintiffs' vehicle - both as it idled and as it drove away - exhibited willful and wanton disregard for human safety and property and constituted precisely the kind of unreasonableness the Fourth Amendment proscribes."
Shaniece Williams, Sherry Thompson and William Allen drove in Thompson's car to pick up the food. Thompson drove and while they were in the drive-thru, Rodriguez stopped a suspect on a motorized scooter at the same intersection.
Rodriguez and the suspect shot at each other during the traffic stop, and the suspect ran towards the drive-thru. The suspect tried to enter Thompson's car but was rebuffed by its occupants, leaving him to jump over a concrete wall and toss his handgun.
But Rodriguez started shooting at the car. Thompson hit the gas and turned southbound onto NW 22nd Ave. while Rodriguez continued to shoot at it.
Williams was shot in the back and left shoulder, while falling glass from the back window fell on Allen, who was handcuffed and detained when the three stopped and called for emergency assistance.
Williams went to the hospital and continues to suffer pain from her injury. Thompson's car was left with bullet holes and a shattered window. Their lawsuit claimed severe mental anguish, stress, fear and anxiety.
Sovereign immunity shielded the county from liability but Rodriguez's claim for qualified immunity failed at the dismissal stage.
Ruiz II said all three have pleaded injuries for mental and emotional distress, plus for physical ones like the gunshot wounds, the falling glass and the damage to the car.