Unfortunately for them:
But what they didn’t know was that Narces Benoit had removed the SIM card and hid it in his mouth, which means the video survived.
Benoit showed the video to Miami Herald reporters on Thursday, who described it in their article.
The three-minute video captured on Narces Benoit’s HTC EVO phone begins as officers crowd around the east side of Herisse’s car with guns drawn. Roughly 15 seconds into the video, officers open fire.
Benoit filmed the incident from the sidewalk on the northeast corner of 13th Street and Collins Avenue, close enough to see some officers’ faces and individual muzzle flashes.
Shortly after the gunfire ends, an officer points at Benoit and police can be heard yelling for him to turn off the camera. The voices are muffled at times. The 35-year-old car stereo technician drops his hand with the camera and hurries back to his Ford Expedition parked further east on 13th Street.
The video shows Benoit get into the car, where his girlfriend, Ericka Davis, sat in the driver’s seat. He raises his camera and an officer is seen appearing on the driver’s side with his gun drawn, pointed at them.
The video ends as more officers are heard yelling expletives, telling the couple to turn the video off and get out of the car.
“They put guns to our heads and threw us on the ground,” Davis said.
Apparently it was quite a melee with bullets flying everywhere and four bystanders wounded in the crossfire. I have no idea if the police did anything wrong in the incident, but their immediate action to destroy video doesn't exactly reassure one that everything is on the up and up. Why would that be their first instinct?
I've written before about the laws being proposed throughout the country that make it illegal to film the police in the line of duty (t
o protect their privacy, don't you know) but they haven't made much headway. I guess some police officers have just decided to destroy the evidence on the spot.
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