Aviana Bailey v. Daytona Beach Police 2016 07 26 McCroskey Deposition
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- Опубликовано: 15 май 2024
- More about this case can be read here: www.news-journalonline.com/st... (Excerpted here).
Woman paralyzed in police shootout suing ex-Daytona Beach officer
A pregnant Aviana Bailey said she didn’t hear the shots and didn’t see the muzzle flashes, but she saw the Daytona Beach police officer with his Glock leveled, confronting her boyfriend as she sat in his car.
Then she felt her life change as the .40-caliber bullet from the officer’s gun slammed into her chest.
“I just felt the impact of it,” Bailey said. “My whole body went numb. I just knew something was wrong and I just see him with his gun pointed at us.”
The young mother-to-be was left paralyzed from the chest down after the shootout with police at Daytona Beach International Airport in April 2012, according to a federal lawsuit filed in Orlando against former Daytona Beach Police Officer Joshua Mersereau. The State Attorney’s Office has cleared Mersereau in the shooting.
The 25-year-old Bailey can breathe on her own and use her arms but not her legs, her attorney said. This is the first time that Bailey has publicly discussed the shooting, which put her in a wheelchair and her baby’s father in prison.
Doctors decided not to remove the bullet which damaged her spine, so she still carries the slug - along with the heartache of not being able to care for her child, Craig, who will turn 2 in September.
“She’s confined to a wheelchair and from the waist down doesn’t work,” said her attorney John Phillips. “Because of that, taking care of a 2-year-old is virtually impossible, so she needs help from her mom and her dad to even take care of her kid. They do a lot of the day-to-day child care. It’s as bad as it gets when a mom can’t take care of her own child.”
“We must see the situation through the eyes of the officer on the scene who is hampered by incomplete information and forced to make a split-second decision between action and inaction in circumstances where inaction could prove fatal,” the motion quotes the appeals court.
A federal judge dismissed Chitwood and the department from the lawsuit but Phillips - the same attorney who recently won a $2.6 million verdict against Volusia County for a Kansas woman run over by a Beach Patrol truck - said the lawsuit will be amended soon to add the city of Daytona Beach as a defendant.
Mersereau opened fire after he saw Bailey’s boyfriend, Marvin C. Jones, point and fire a revolver at him, according to an investigation from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Mersereau fired his gun 23 times, according to the FDLE. Bailey’s lawsuit says Mersereau fired between 23 to 37 bullets. The two other officers - Christopher Pearsall and Michael Dill - fired five times, the FDLE said. Pearsall and Dill are not named in the lawsuit.
The investigation also found that Jones tried to fire his gun six times but it malfunctioned and fired only twice. Jones was hit by five shots from police but survived. No police officers were hit. Jones pleaded no contest last year to attempted second-degree murder, aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer with a firearm, resisting arrest with violence and attempting to flee and elude with lights and siren. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
The State Attorney’s Office cleared Mersereau, Pearsall and Dill after the investigation by the FDLE. Mersereau and the other officers would later be honored for their actions that day. And still later, Mersereau would be fired in October 2013 for pummeling a fellow officer in a locker room fight.
The issue of an innocent mother getting shot should not be mixed up with Jones’ actions that day, Phillips said.
“What happened with Marvin Jones is separate and distinct,” Phillips said. “There is some debate we can have on how that actually went down. At no point was Aviana more than a girl who was pregnant going to see the father of the child, not knowing anything was going on and winds up with a bullet in her spine and winds up paralyzed.”
The suit claims Mersereau fired in an unsafe and unreasonable manner “in the direction of the innocent Aviana Bailey.” Mersereau fired “when it was apparent that no forcible felony was being committed or life threatening situation existed.” And he fired while tripping over a curb knowing that “could cause errant bullets to stray from the intended target,” the complaint states.
More in link.
The federal counts were dismissed via qualified immunity and settled under state law claims which are capped by sovereign immunity in Florida. We will upload more depositions in this case.
It is so terrifying that our government is content to give immunity to their most incompetent employees who also happened to be armed. This was not a white-collar paperwork snafu.
The cop gets to draw his gun because he's scared even though he doesnt see a gun , maybe the guy should keep going because he's scared after SEEING a gun !
Thank you for the description! What a sad situation for that poor momma😢
So he just shot at somebody without verifying anything why are cops or trigger-happy
Because they so scared, a acorn can fall and they will star dumping clips , nobodys life is going to be safe besides theirs at all cost, dogs , children , grandmothers or any innocent bystander are at risk, if you see cops in the immidate area you better be looking for cover!!
Holy crap - no crime committed - and you pulled your weapon - because someone said they had a gun - Which is NOT illegal 🤨 - How is this man still in uniform
How is he not in jail ?
Far as the man knew it was a robber in a cop suit
What kind of cop does not review video after an incident that he was involved with. I would call lazy officer on this one. I have not been to this airport, but I am pretty sure there are cameras in the parking area.
Do you mean that he should have reviewed the video BEFORE he tried to make contact? If so, I can’t say whether or not that would be feasible.
Personally, the questions that the defense attorney asked on cross were, in my opinion irrelevant. The only thing that matters are the facts that are known to the officer at the time. The fact that the plaintiff was a convicted felon was not known and therefore is irrelevant. The fact that there is no evidence that a crime was being committed due to the fact that possession of a firearm OUTSIDE of the security controlled area of an airport is not a crime, nor does it give any reasonable suspicion that can be articulated by facts that a crime had been committed, was being committed, or was about to be committed. This officer’s testimony was that the plaintiff was traveling in the direction of the exit of the parking area. No RAS to detain, and DEFINITELY no RAS to draw down on the plaintiff. This cop’s contention that “we don’t want any firearms anywhere on airport property” is ludicrous. He’s a law enforcement officer. He doesn’t get to make up his own rules for how the public “should” conduct themselves. This, in my opinion, is another incident that involves a cop who has the idea that his badge is all the authority he needs. “I ordered him (a law abiding member of the public, according to the facts known to the officer at the time) to get out of the vehicle.”
If this officer was anymore incompetent I don’t think he could find his way out of his house, how in Gods name is this person still a police officer
This cop looks and sounds intoxicated imo
23 shots fired from the officer, sounds like officer was trying to make sure the man in the car never shot at anything or anybody again!!!!
I really like watching depositions but why are they always 8 to 10 year old
The second attorney didnt need anyone to answer,he was testifying on his own.
I don’t understand how this PD can take issue with someone having a firearm on the property, specifically in the parking lot. What happens if someone is going on a hunting trip and they are bringing their firearm/firearms with them? How does this PD expect them to get their firearms to the destination?
Granted, I wasn’t there, but just the idea that someone draws a gun on me, my instinct is going to be to get my self out of the danger zone.
Whats this about?
Read the description! Click on the title and scroll down
The lady that was in the car got shot later by another agency and is paralyzed from the waist down. She was pregnant at the time.
31:45 did you do any investigation .... Cops prelies no. Lawyer follows up you didn't have time to do any of that, you were just reacting.
That is brilliant by the lawyer. He turned a almost accusatory question into just a mundane question. This if shown to a jury would not make the lawyer look bad by accusing the cop for not investigating.
👀👀
This cpp is being coached, watch hi eye's
It seems like the cop thought it was a big joke. Just smiling from ear to ear. Immunity from responsibility and penalty must be fun