Bodycam video shows man punched, pepper-sprayed, shocked with Taser during 2022 arrest in Homestead
By: Homestead Police have released body camera video of the controversial arrest of a man that has South Florida’s migrant community up in arms.
The footage from the Oct. 17, 2022 arrest shows a Homestead Police officer attempting to arrest Mateo Agosto, who, police said, did not cooperate.
“What do we got? What do we got?” one of the officers is heard saying.
“Resisting,” said another officer.
Speaking in Spanish, the officer approached Agosto and two other men. After a quick dialogue, the officer told Agosto he’s going to be arrested for drinking.
“Turn around,” an officer told Agosto in Spanish as the struggle continued.
The video shows the officers repeatedly telling Agosto to put his hands behind his back, but the man did not comply.
At one point, one officer got on top of Agosto and punched him. The officers then pepper-sprayed him.
Despite all that, on top of sitting up and then on the ground again, video shows Agosto still refused to place his hands behind his back.
The officers went a step further and pulled out a Taser.
Tania Gonzalez, director of the nonprofit Savage Combat, said she was deeply disturbed by the footage
“His face looked nothing like his face at the beginning of the bodycam video,” she said.
Gonzalez said Savage Combat plans to protest the officers’ actions on Sunday. She said what is depicted in the video is the definition of police brutality.
“What we hope is that we can start initializing some type of change and start to have accountability, and the accountability goes both ways,” she said.
Homestead Police said that after the incident took place, the department’s chief asked the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office to investigate.
In a statement, Homestead Police Capt. Fernando Morales wrote, “The State Attorney’s Office determined that our officers had reacted and responded within the parameters of the use of force continuum and that no criminal charges were to be filed.”
“Even while they are yelling, ‘Put your hands behind your back’, how can you do that when one person has one arm and the other one is pulling you by the other one, and he’s trying to just wipe the blood off his face?” said Gonzalez.
Morales’ statement further reads, “The Homestead Police Department is also aware that a highly edited version of the video is being circulated on social media, which makes the incident seem much more severe than what occurred on that day.”
The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s office reviewed different videos referring to when they said the officer was “kneeing” Agosto in the face.
In their report, a spokesperson for the state attorney’s office wrote “Though this is optically offensive, given the totality of the circumstances (Agosto failing to comply with police verbal commands, resisting arrest, and applying pressure to Officer Lago’s fingers), it does not rise to a level where criminal prosecution is appropriate.”
Gonzalez disagrees with the decision to not charge the officers and said they went too far.
“This was an atrocity. There is no reason, there was no violence shown. This man was a rag doll, and we are still human,” she said.
The chief addressed what happened with the officers, saying the department took appropriate action, but did not provide further details about the kind of action that was taken.