Daniel Lewis’ family wants answers after police kill him in Miami Gardens – NBC 6 South Florida

The Lewis family is still grieving and seeking closure because they do not understand why police shot Daniel Lewis on May 31 as he stood on his porch.

“I watched my son take his last breath, and that is the hardest thing a mother can ever do, from the first breath to the last,” Angela Lewis, Daniel’s mother, said at a news conference on Tuesday. “No one will understand what was taken from us, and we just want to know why, why, why did this have to happen?”

“The answer to their question, ‘Why did this have to happen?’ is that it didn’t have to happen, it absolutely didn’t have to happen. Mr. Lewis should be here today,” said Chris Lomax, an attorney representing the family in an upcoming lawsuit against Miami Gardens police and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

These agencies worked together in a task force to combat gun violence.

Lewis was 27 years old and the son of a retired New York City police officer. He had two young children, had no criminal record and had a gun permit. He was home that night in May. His cousins ​​were in a car and were being followed, they say, by a black unmarked car that had no police lights or sirens. They panicked and drove into their backyard to escape the people they thought were gang members. Lewis came outside to see what was going on and that’s when he was shot.

“Not once did anyone yell ‘Police, stop, police, stop,’ instead they gunned down a law-abiding citizen in his backyard, at his back door, without warning,” said attorney Ariel Lett.

On the night of the incident, Special Agent in Charge of the ATF’s Miami office Christopher Robinson said, “Unfortunately, some individuals fired at some Miami Gardens detectives and some of my agents. Fire was returned, one individual was struck and unfortunately passed away.”

“Why was there a rush, why was there such urgency to shoot Mr. Lewis that night? There was no rush, that was a bad shot, that should not have happened,” Lomax said.

NBC6 reached out to both agencies for comment on Tuesday. Miami Gardens police did not respond, while the ATF told us it could not comment because the investigation is ongoing.

Lawyers for the Lewis family say he had his gun on him when he died, but none of the bullets found at the scene came from his gun. If he had pointed the gun at police officers, that would have been enough of a threat for officers to shoot him. We don’t know if that happened or if Lewis knew they were police officers.