"I heard the shooter, Officer Aledda, make a statement to the nature of, 'Be advised, I haveclear shot [at] subject,'" Eugene says, describing the audio of the police radio just before the shooting. "Later on, a sergeant ... got on the air and said, 'I have a visual, it is a toy. Is it a toy? QRX.' That means, 'Stand by, don't do anything.' Then there is a conversation back and forth. The next transmission was by [another officer saying] 'Shot fired!'"
Eugene's description comes in an hour-long interview that centers on the bizarre aftermath of the case. He doesn't pull punches about the state of the department. Eugene, a veteran City of Miami cop who had been sworn in as chief only six days before the Kinsey shooting, says training was lax and infighting rampant.
"The scene was a mess, to be honest with you," he tells investigators of the Kinsey shooting. "People were walking all over the place. Thank God [Kinsey] did not die. I realized I have a problem with the training of my staff. We're talking about some 15 or 16-year veterans, but in North Miami, a 15 or 16-year veteran may have less experience than a two-year cop in Miami."
Fights in the department were so bad, Eugene said, that he worried his own cops wouldn't even be willing to protect each other, much less the community.
"I'm afraid one of them will get shot for God's sake, and someone will call for backup and they'll say, 'I'm not going,' just to tell you how much the animosity is," he said.
Much of Eugene's interview centers around the suspension of Hollant, a commander who was present at the shooting. The chief paints a dark picture of department infighting, collusion, and incompetence on the part of city officials.
Three days after Kinsey's shooting, North Miami city officials held a press conference announcing that, in addition to Aledda, they had suspended Hollant. In fact, they were suspending Hollant without pay, whileAledda would be on paid leave. Why? According to City Manager Larry Spring,Hollant had lied to Eugene at the scene by telling him he hadn't witnessed the shooting; in fact, Spring claimed, audio showed theHollant was there.
But Eugene tells a very different story in his interview. He says that Hollant was actually suspended as part of a plot by Assistant Chief Larry Juriga, who had an ongoing feud withHollant.
Eugene says the trouble started on July 21, three days after the shooting. That's when Juriga came to his office to tell him thatHollant had lied. Juriga said that "we found out he had a radio transmission that (Hollant) actually gave the order, that he made a statement that caused the shooter to open fire," Eugene said. "I was fuming when I heard that ... I made a comment, 'fukk ... I'm going to suspend him.'"
Eugene says he immediately went to Spring and City Attorney Jeff Cazeau and filled them in. They all agreed to suspend Hollant. But on the drive home, Eugene had second thoughts. He recalled that Juriga and Hollant didn't get along, and decided to listen to the audio from the shooting himself. That's when he says he realized Juriga had lied
You think this shyt is going to happen overnight?
