Charges have been dropped for a Miami man who was shot multiple times by police after a confrontation with officers.
Forty-seven-year-old Donald Armstrong was badly injured after the March 7 encounter at his home with Miami Police officers at Northwest 58th Street and Seventh Court.
Armstrong was having a mental health episode on that day, so his mother called police to help de-escalate the situation.
But instead, as multiple officers gathered at his front doorstep, Armstrong got shocked with a Taser twice and shot about six times.
Video footage showed Armstrong at the entrance of the home holding an object in his hand. In that same video, Armsotrong lifts his shirt to prove he was unarmed before the officers opened fire.
Following the incident, Armstrong was arrested and charged with aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest without violence.
Months later, Armstrong is back home as he continues recovering from his injuries.
“It’s all unbelievable. This morning, I told her, ‘I got shot?’ And she’s like, ‘Yeah, you’re still alive,’ and I’m like, ‘I can’t believe it, because I’m natural, I’m normal like you. I can move around, I can lift things now, you know?’ And I got a bullet protruding out my back,” he said. “I don’t think I ever recovered fully, but I’m doing a lot better. I’m not wheelchair-bound.”
As he recalled that day, Armstrong said he didn’t understand the officer’s command to drop the object he had in his hand because he was holding it as a magic wand.
“If you’ve ever seen Harry Potter, the little wand, or a musician who orchestrates, that was a little, and it was not what people portrayed it to be,” he said. “So when they said, ‘Drop the weapon,’ I could not figure out, ‘What are you talking about?’”
Armstrong hopes that his case changes the way the Miami Police Department handles mental health episodes.
“When they come in these neighborhoods. They’re not coming to serve and protect. They’re coming to hunt, like they’re hunting out people,” he said.
On Thursday, his lawyer, Larry Handfield, said all of those charges are now dropped.
“I’m happy. My client is very, very happy to get a positive result for him so he can move on with his life,” said Handfield.
Armstrong said he is happy to be able to once again greet his neighbors, and he is breathing a sigh of relief.
“I’m so ecstatic that the fact that I got my life back,” he said.
His wife calls him a tough guy and said she’s grateful her husband is alive today.
“I’m really happy that, I’ve been praying so much for him, said Nohemi Palmero. “He’s a tough one.”
Armstrong said his life has never been the same since, because he no longer has full use of his right hand and arm.
However, he is now using this second opportunity in life to start a company along with his wife called Mind Strong Motivations. The goal of their company is to help motivate and guide children through life.
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Source: wsvn
