Dramatic new police bodycamera footage shows the moment an officer was shot during a shootout at CityPlace Doral last year that left two people dead and multiple other people wounded, as prosecutors have cleared the officers who opened fire of any wrongdoing.
The new bodycam footage obtained by NBC6 on Thursday also shows the chaos that unfolded as gunfire rang out at Martini Bar at CityPlace on April 6, 2024.
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WATCH HEREAccording to authorities, 37-year-old Jamal Wayne Wood had started shooting indiscriminately when a fight broke out in the bar's outside lounge.
Doral Police Sgt. Andre Romo and Officer Ricardo Acevedo were working off-duty at CityPlace and responded to the lounge.
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Acevedo's body camera shows the moment they confronted Wood.
"Yo, yo, put the gun down!" Acevedo says before a barrage of bullets can be heard.
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Screaming can be heard and wounded people are seen on the ground as Acevedo realizes he was hit.
"Ah, shots fired, I think he shot me," Acevedo says. "Shots fired, shots fired!"
Acevedo immediately wraps a tourniquet around his leg to control the bleeding as other officers rush in to help him.
"I got an officer shot! I got an officer shot!" another officer yells into his radio.
"That's a bad one bro," Acevedo says in the video.
"Hey sarge, he's bleeding a lot," another officer says.
Despite being seriously wounded, Acevedo gets on his radio and calmly relays the information.
"We're inside Martini Bar, I've been shot. Subject down, weapon is on the floor, start fire rescue, we have one victim down," he says.
After a few minutes, fellow officers carry Acevedo to a police cruiser and he's driven to Jackson Memorial Hospital's Ryder Trauma Center, where he's carried inside.
Authorities said Wood killed 23-year-old George Alejandro Castellanos, a private security guard who had intervened in the fight.
Another security guard, the club's owner, and four patrons were also shot by Wood, who was killed in the police shootout, officials said.
Acevedo and Romo later filed a lawsuit against the owners of Martini Bar and the private security company, accusing them of negligence and alleging that the "preventable" incident left them both with severe injuries.
The lawsuit said Acevedo suffered severely debilitating and permanent injuries after he was shot in the leg, centimeters from his femoral artery.
Romo has not been able to recover from incapacitating post-traumatic stress that has impeded his ability to work as an officer, the suit said.
The lawsuit added that the officers applied a tourniquet to the nightclub owner's gunshot wound, saving his life.
The suit alleges that Castellanos "was recently hired and had not undergone proper safety training, which could have prevented the incident."
Castellanos' mother told NBC6 that he was a father to a 2-year-old girl and was set to graduate from Florida International University in May. He was honored with a posthumous degree from FIU in late April.
In a memo from Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle's office earlier this month, prosecutors said a Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation found the use of deadly force by Romo and Acevedo was legally justified.
"Based on the totality of the circumstances and a review of the evidence, it was reasonable for the officers to believe that their lives were in danger," the memo reads. "It was also reasonable for the officers to believe that deadly force was necessary to prevent death or great bodily harm to themselves and to all of the patrons and employees that were at the Martini Bar."
Some of the other victims of the shooting have also filed lawsuits against the establishment and CityPlace.
Last May, Doral city leaders took the first step toward enhancing security measures and possibly rolling back the last call for alcohol in response to the shooting.
