No charges against Miami police officer who shot bystander outside Wynwood club

Crime admin October 17, 2026 0 Comments

No charges against Miami police officer who shot bystander outside Wynwood club

The three Miami police officers who shot three civilians, killing a Baptist Health social worker stuck in traffic outside a Wynwood nightclub last year, won’t face criminal charges, according to a Miami-Dade State Attorney report obtained on Friday.

“The investigation has determined that the officers were legally justified in the use of deadly force by discharging their weapons. Therefore, no criminal charges will be filed,” Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a letter to Miami Police Chief Edwin Lopez.

On June 14, 2025, the officers fired shots responding to a fight that broke out inside the Electric Lady nightclub at 144 NW 23rd Street around 3 a.m., according to the report. The scuffle spilled out into the street.

READ MORE: Officer who shot bystander in Wynwood likely won’t be charged, attorney says

Two of the officers, Sgt. Javier Herbello and Officer Dorian Acosta, were firing at an armed man, Norman Lindo, Jr., when he emerged from the side entrance of the club. Lindo was holding a gun pointed at the ground, the report states.

Herbello and Acosta were standing beside a parked car and began firing at Lindo, who was in a shoving match with Santiago Hernaiz. The two were among two quarreling groups inside the club that began to fight, according to the report. Lindo was shot 10 times. Security camera footage showed him collapse on the street. Hernaiz was not hit by the officers’ gunfire

But a bullet coming from Acosta’s gun hit the abdomen of a bystander, Evelyn Caridad Valdes, who was inside a Mazda SUV that was slowly driving by the club. Valdes died later that morning at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

A bullet grazed the leg of another woman who was sitting in the front passenger seat of the Mazda. Another officer, Sgt. Jose Cabrera, was standing at the front entrance of the club when the barrage of bullets began flying. He took out his weapon and accidentally shot the club’s manager, John Fortini, who was standing next to him, in the hand, according to the report.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which investigated the shooting, found 12 casings at the scene. Seven stemmed from Herbello’s firearm, four from Acosta’s and one from Cabrera’s.

In the memo, prosecutors say the officers’ use of force was justified because they may have felt that deadly force was necessary to “prevent death or great bodily harm to themselves, patrons of the nightclub and pedestrians in the area.”

The panel of prosecutors determined that Valdes’ “tragic death” and Fortini’s injury were “not caused by criminal acts,” according to the report. They also found that Lindo’s shooting was legally justified.

READ MORE: Family of woman accidentally killed by Miami police at Wynwood club files suit

Valdes was celebrating her 28th birthday that night with her friends when she was shot. Valdes’ family is suing the Miami Police Department for the shooting in Miami federal court. Her mother, Kristy Garcia, speaking to reporters last week, said she was frustrated to hear that the officer who killed her daughter is not going to be prosecuted.

“The State Attorney’s office may close the investigation into the vicious and gratuitous police shooting that killed my daughter,” Garcia said in a statement Friday. “The office’s decision, however, will not close her life, her achievements or the love she gave to everyone she touched.”

Ramon Rasco, the attorney representing Valdes’ family in the civil suit, said they were disappointed by the lack of criminal charges.

“The non-prosecution decision was delivered to the family prior to turnover of any files, which as of this writing has yet to occur,” Rasco said in a statement. “The lack of transparency has added to the family’s disappointment.”