New bodycam video shows a fatal police shooting in Miami back in 2023 as prosecutors say the officer was legally justified in the killing.
The footage was released this week after the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office determined the Oct. 11, 2023 shooting of 20-year-old Arnicious Xavier Odom, Jr. was justified.
Family PhotoFamily Photo
Arnicious Odom Jr.
According to a Feb. 3 close-out memo from the state attorney’s office, Odom and another man had been seen jaywalking on Northwest 2nd Avenue near Northwest 60th Street while wearing ski masks and hoodies.
A detective approached and the other man was found with a loaded gun in his pants but Odom fled on foot, prompting a pursuit, the memo said.
The bodycam footage shows Det. Sthephany Canizares running after Odom with her weapon drawn.
At one point, Odom threw a gun over a fence and then hopped over the fence at a field at Miami Edison Senior High School.
The memo said Canizares ordered him not to pick the gun up but Odom went to pick it up and that’s when Canizares shot and killed him.
“I told him not to go for that gun!” Canizares is heard telling other officers in the footage.
The state attorney’s office said Canizares’ actions in shooting Odom were legally justified because “it was reasonable to believe that he posed an imminent threat of death or great bodily harm to the officers,” the memo said.
After the shooting, Odom’s mother, Antionette Jones, told NBC6 she wanted answers.
“Witnesses out there said that my baby was running across the field and collapsed,” she said. “If he was running from you, what harm can he do to you? What can he do? Why didn’t you tase him?”