The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s office has cleared a Miami police officer in the shooting death of a man in the city’s Overtown neighborhood.
According to CBS4 News partner The Miami Herald, prosecutors found officer Maurice Sodre justified in using deadly force to kill Lynn Weatherspoon on New Year’s Day 2011.
Sodre served as part of a SWAT team which backed up patrol officers responding to reports of gunshots on New Year’s night.
Investigators say Weatherspoon had a gun and refused to drop it.
While Sodre was cleared in the shooting, prosecutors did question the wisdom of using heavily armed SWAT officers on a night marked by celebratory gunfire.
“It is our reasoned opinion that the policy that placed SWAT Officer Sodre in the position of shooting Lynn Weatherspoon on New Year’s Eve be evaluated in light of the resulting police-involved shooting,” prosecutors wrote.
Miami Police Chief Manuel Orosa has discontinued the practice of using SWAT officers on New Year’s Eve.
Weatherspoon, 27, was one of seven black men whose fatal shootings by police in Miami’s inner-city angered community activists and marred the tenure of former Miami Police Miguel Exposito.
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