Updates: Miami Gardens Police Department
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Since we ran a story on Miami Gardens, Fla., in our "Cops See It Differently" show, there's been several developments at the city's police department.
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• On Feb.15th, officers shot and killed resident Lavall Hall, 25. His mother told the Miami Herald that she called the police after Hall refused to come into their house and came at her with a broomstick. She says she wanted help getting her son, who was schizophrenic and bipolar, to a hospital. The police chief, Stephen Johnson, told the Herald that his officers tried using Tasers on Hall after he hit one of them with the broom, but they pulled their guns when Hall charged them. The city placed the officers on administrative injury leave pending the outcome of an investigation.
• Feb. 27th, a 10-year-old girl was struck by an unmarked police cruiser. Video report from 7 News in Miami is posted here.
• Also on Feb. 27th, police chief Stephen Johnson was arrested at a motel in a prostitution sting after allegedly trying to arrange a threesome with an undercover officer from the Broward County Sheriff’s Office. In media interviews, the new chief, who'd been in his job less than a year, said: "The stress overwhelmed me, and I made a very bad decision." He talks about his arrest in this video and apologizes. Miami Gardens terminated Johnson’s position.
Former Miami Gardens police chief Stephen Johnson in a booking photo from the Broward County Sheriff's Department after his arrest last Friday.