The Florida Civil Rights Association (FCRA) is seeking answers regarding a deputy-involved shooting last Friday in Pine Hills, after receiving complaints from residents and other members of the public, outraged over the questionable police tactics used.
The Sheriff’s Office said 49-year-old Wesley Sylvester Moore was shot and killed when they went to 5902 Gamble Drive to serve three felony warrants on him and he lunged at a deputy with a knife. The warrants being served were for domestic aggravated battery with motor vehicle, grand theft, and carjacking.
The deputy who shot Moore, an under cover agent, was hired by the Sheriff’s Office in January 2006 and is assigned to the felony squad.
According to the FCRA, Pine Hills residents complained that their civil rights were violated when deputies entered three homes in the area without search warrants.
Residents claimed they were terrorized when deputies forced their way into two homes, one belonging to Eddie King and another resident, that had nothing to do with the incident, a statement released by FCRA said.
“The deputies were dressed in plain clothes and military gear, equipped with a bullet proof shield, a battering ram, hand guns, and AKA assault rifles, before shooting a wanted man dead in the third home located at 5902 Gamble Road,” FCRA said in the statement.
While the Sheriff’s Office said that Moore was shot and killed after he lunged at a deputy with a knife, civil rights officials say, they learnt that the shooting occurred while Moore was in the bathroom. They added that it appeared that the attic and bedrooms at the home where Moore was killed, were searched after he was shot dead.
Residents also told FCRA officials that “white” deputies were high-fiving each other, after Moore was shot dead.
President of the FCRA, J. Willie David III, said his main concern and that of the association is to “insure that the Orange County Sheriff’s Office is held accountable…..and determine if Orange County deputies went on an illegal and inherently dangerous fishing expedition in a reckless manner.”
David added that the public should know whether deputies received proper training and preparation in their search for Moore, a fugitive.
“A lack of preparation or blatant recklessness would be the only reasons to illegally enter a citizen’s home in the effort to catch a fugitive, wherein neither exigent nor hot-pursuit circumstances exist,” David said.
Added David, “Orange County deputies charged on full speed ahead, guns drawn, with the constitutional rights of the predominately African American community in their way be damned,” David stated. “The police tactics used by the deputies begs the question- would the same procedure have been followed in a predominately wealthy Caucasian area?”
no and of course if it was all up scale home this would of never happen and they was high fivin cause they killed human ,is really sad,what they are doing I ASK?hiring people from war zones who are not stable in mind and has no feeling for killing or taking human life it is really sad and sick,,this is not last time this kind of mess will happen and people need fight power that be ,it is open season I see on human life.