FUBAR in Biscayne Park (SURPRISE! A North Miami connection!)

Last night Channel 7 reported an incident in which a Biscayne Park Police Officer responded to a call involving domestic violence, which resulted in his repeatedly striking the mentally ill subject, Shawna Yuen, and giving her a black eye.  Reporter Rosh Lowe noted that “one of their police officers repeatedly struck a woman suffering from schizophrenia after she grabbed him by his private parts.”

Ms. Yuen’s mother called the police when her daughter threw something at her during a fight.  Channel 7 reported, “According to a Biscayne Park Police report, the male officer arrived alone. Shawna ran from the home, and at that point, the mother told the officer, ‘Her daughter suffered from schizophrenia and sometimes refuses to take her medication,’ the police report said.”

When the officer approached Shawna in a tool shed, she allegedly grabbed him by the testicles, after which he “struck the defendant several times in the face area.”

She was eventually was booked by Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation.

The incident is now under investigation by the Village of Biscayne Park.

Yeah, that should work out well.

Even before he beat the crap out of the subject, the officer’s first mistake was responding to a domestic violence call by himself.

According to Policemag.com:

“A domestic violence assignment is never one to be handled solo. It is as simple as that. Too many officers have already died trying. A number of them had backup coming, but failed to wait for it to arrive before going into action. Very few had to act immediately in order to save a life. They simply chose to. Some of them died in the process.

All of the things that make a domestic violence call so dangerous—the frequent presence of emotions, alcohol, possible weapons—also dictate the absolute need for one or more backups to be on-scene before you tackle the problems you find there.”

There is also protocol for police officers who respond to calls when the subject has mental health issues.

For example, in the aftermath of the shooting last summer involving a North Miami police officer and the caregiver of an autistic man, every NMPD officer had to attend Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training.

The National Institutes of Health describes this program as “as a collaborative approach to safely and effectively address the needs of persons with mental illnesses, link them to appropriate services, and divert them from the criminal justice system if appropriate.”

An article published in the institute’s National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), describes the nature of the problem as:

“Calls involving persons experiencing mental health crises can be particularly problematic for police officers. Surveys of officers suggest that they do not feel adequately trained to effectively respond to mental health crises, that mental health calls are very time-consuming and divert officers from other crime fighting activities, and that mental health providers are not very responsive (Cooper, McLearen & Zapf, 2004; Vermette, Pinals & Appelbuam, 2005; Wells & Schafer, 2006). Officers perceive mental health related calls as very unpredictable and dangerous, which without adequate training in de-escalation, could inadvertently cause them to approach in a manner which escalates the situation (Ruiz, 1993; Ruiz & Miller, 2004). As media reports confirm, on rare occasions, mental health related calls do end in horrible tragedies, with officers or persons with mental illness being seriously or fatally wounded.”

Why the Biscayne Park officer responded to the scene alone is still a complete mystery.  Although the Village has only a handful of cops on its payroll, there are mutual aid agreements with departments in several neighboring cities, such as North Miami, Miami Shores, El Portal and Miami-Dade County.  In fact, the City of North Miami is literally across the street from Biscayne Park.

When the Biscayne Park cop finally did call North Miami for backup, they showed up wearing their brand spanking new body-worn cameras.  What might be revealed on those videos is still a mystery since, as Rosh Lowe reported, as of last night the City of North Miami has yet to respond to his public records request.

This should not surprise anyone.

For one thing, sources have told me that the Biscayne Park officer who responded to the call was a former commander in the North Miami Police Department by the name of Pedro J. Dominguez, a/k/a Pete Dominguez.

Facebook photo: Commander Pedro J. Dominguez (February 6, 2011)

For the uninitiated, Pete Dominguez is a bona fide member of North Miami Assistant Chief Larry Juriga’s “Illuminati.”

In fact, we are told they both recently went on vacation to Africa together.

“Bucket head chup” Larry Juriga and Pete Dominguez

They go waaaaay back.

“Da boyz” from left to right: Pat McNally, Larry Juriga, Angel Rivera, Pete Dominguez and Trevor Shinn, a/k/a The Illuminati

Sources have also told me that Dominguez was only hired by Biscayne Park within the last month and that Larry Juriga helped him get the gig.

There is absolutely no way “Bucket head chup” and “Da boyz” are gonna let their good buddy go down without a fight.

This should be interesting.

In the meantime, we made our own public records request from the Village of Biscayne Park for Pete Dominguez’ personnel information, including his background check, whether or not he has received Crisis Intervention training, and other information.  We have also requested copies of the incident report, arrest affidavit, body-worn camera videos and correspondences between Biscayne Park and North Miami regarding this incident.

For good measure, we also made a public records request from the City of North Miami for copies of their body-worn camera videos.

I’m sure both municipalities will jump right on it.

As always, we will keep you posted on this evolving story.

Stephanie

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

11 thoughts on “FUBAR in Biscayne Park (SURPRISE! A North Miami connection!)

  1. Who/why on earth paid the felony bond mentioned under “remarks”? Why call the police to take her ass away to just get her right out again? Sorry but there is no innocent party here; this is a waste of taxpayers’ money.

    1. From what I understand she has not been bailed out. While there is no innocent party, this woman obviously needs professional help. She also didn’t deserve to have her face pummeled by a law enforcement officer, who is supposed to “protect and serve.” This cop should never have responded without backup in the first place. It went downhill from there. Never a dull moment in northeast Miami-Dade County!

  2. WOW—Why does North Miami’s losers leave the city of North Miami that they destroyed just to go destroy another city like Biscayne Park.

    1. Believe it or not, the Biscayne Park Police Department is more screwed up than even North Miami. NMPD responded to the backup call because there is a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the two municipalities, which is an agreement to respond to each others’ calls. This is standard practice in the county. This is critical for Biscayne Park especially, because there are usually no more than two officers on duty at any given time.

  3. This is one of the reasons why municipalities as small as Biscayne Park shouldn’t exist in the first place. There isn’t enough revenue to support a government infrastructure, especially a police department. If there are only two cops on duty at any given time, it makes it hard to put two of them together for call for service if one of them is already on a call or temporarily out-of-service taking a dump.

    The best thing that could happen for the residents of Biscayne Park is to dis-incorporate and become an unincorpotated part of the County. The residents would benefit from lower taxes and better police protection and they wouldn’t have to put up with the political hacks (like Fred) that always run for office in South Florida’s version of Mayberry with multiple Barney Fife’s in their PD. I would sign that dis-incorporation petition in a heart-beat.

  4. Biscayne Park is more screwed up then North Miami—-Well I say they are neck and neck in the race. More like twin sisters.

  5. The Village of Biscayne Park along with the Village of El Portal should be merged into the Village of Miami Shores. It will decrease the number of politicians and bureaucrats while lowering the millage rate for its residents. You could put cost savings into hiring additional professional law enforcement officials for Miami Shores to patrol the newly annexation areas along with improving training and development of its law enforcement officers.

  6. This is why I tell me wife if I ever go bonkers or suicidal call the Fire Department! Do NOT call the police!!!!

    Police Officer is still one of the few good paying jobs you can get without a college degree. Usually you only need a High School Diploma, no criminal convictions, and an eagerness to drive around at night with a gun looking for trouble. Don’t get me wrong, I 100% support the police and what they do. But in 2017 we need national police certification.

    1. I disagree with a national police certification since this is the responsibility of each state. There is already a statewide certification for officers, but department accreditation is optional, not mandatory. Each department, even one as small as Biscayne Park, must be required to meet a minimum standard of law enforcement. If they cannot pass the assessment (up to two or three times in a row), the county should take over the department. Just my opinion, of course.

      1. OK, I see your point. But whatever the state has is not enough. City of Miramar was hiring last year, starting pay $50,000 a year. GED or high school diploma and no felony convictions. The level of professionalism of police changes as you drive across South Florida. Some are great. Some not so much.

Leave a Reply to Who's the crazy one? Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *