The execution of a young man in Kissimmee by local police became even less justified this week, as the State’s Attorney’s Office dropped charges against two men who were shot and survived.
In case you missed it, the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office executed 20-year-old Jayden Baez for the suspected crime of stealing Pokemon cards and pizza from a Kissimmee Target.
Osceola County Sheriff’s Office deputies boxed in Baez’s car using four unmarked vehicles. The box-in maneuver was performed improperly, leaving Baez’s car the space to accelerate into the vehicles that had boxed him in and were not immediately identifiable as police cars. While deputies claim they shouted “Stop! Sheriff’s Office!,” none of the many deputies on scene were wearing body cameras. OSCO Sheriff Marcos Lopez said that the deputies were not wearing body cameras as they had just completed a nearby training exercise.
What happened next is not in dispute. Police fired into the vehicle, killing Baez and hitting two other men. Charges of petit theft against those two men, 19-year-old Joseph Lowe and 18-year-old Michael Gomez, were dropped this week. Both men were shot, with Gomez suffering three gunshot wounds. and Lowe being shot six times. Lowe claimed in a video shared by his attorney that there was no time to respond to police demands before they began firing, and that he was hit multiple times in his hands because he was holding them up to officers.
The Osceola Sheriff’s Office has offered little beyond a news conference where they showed surveillance footage of the incident. Lopez also announced a list of posthumous charges against the deceased.
“We are gratified and thankful that the Office of the State Attorney has exercised its discretion and dropped the charges. The unnecessary militaristic actions of the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office caused the maiming and death of these young men over the theft of Pokemon cards and a pizza,” said attorney Mark NeJame, who is representing the two men, “It is the deadly actions and policy of the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office that must be focused on and addressed.”