An illegal migrant from Guatemala faces a manslaughter charge after a Florida sheriff’s deputy suffered a fatal heart attack during a fight in May with the 18-year-old in St. Augustine.
The stakes in the legally complex case intensified this week after Virgilio Aguilar-Mendez hired a civil rights attorney who claims he was wrongfully detained before the encounter that led to the death of the St. Johns County sergeant , Michael Kunovich.
Aguilar-Mendez entered the United States illegally across the southern border last year when he was 17 and eventually came to St. Augustine to work on farms, according to court documents.
Kunovich, a 52-year veteran officer, first saw the worker in the parking lot of a Super 8 motel around 9 p.m. on May 16.
According to an arrest report, the teen began walking away from the area after seeing Kunovich approaching in his marked patrol car.
St. Johns County Sergeant Michael Kunovich died after a fight with Aguilar-Mendez. St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office
“He contacted him to just say, ‘Hey, why are you trespassing on this property?’” St. Johns County Sheriff Robert Hardwick said during a news conference about the case last month. “That was a simple thing, a simple task.”
Body camera footage of their interaction revealed Aguilar-Mendez’s limited English.
“When you saw me, you walked away,” Kunovich can be heard telling him, before Aguilar-Méndez appears to reference “drinking” somewhere nearby.
Virgilio Aguilar-Mendez, who told Kunovich he did not speak English, worked on farms in St. Augustine. Police via News4Jax
Kunovich then asks for his ID and name.
“Sorry, I don’t speak English,” he responds.
The exchange becomes tense after Kunovich turns him around to check him for a gun, placing his hand in one of his pockets.
The teen, who later said he feared deportation because of the detention, appears to move away from Kunovich at that point, prompting the officer to raise his voice.
“Don’t walk away from me,” he shouts.
Kunovich, a veteran officer, leaves behind two young children. St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office
“No, no, sorry, sorry,” the migrant responds as he tries to leave the place.
More officers arrived and struggled to subdue Aguilar-Mendez on the ground.
He continued to resist despite being shocked several times, according to an arrest report.
“While fighting on the ground with Sergeant Kunovich and other officers, the defendant grabbed Sergeant Kunovich’s Taser in an attempt to gain control of the weapon,” the document states.
“After taking control and handcuffing the defendant, he armed himself with a folding knife, which he removed from the pockets of his shorts. “The officers gave loud verbal commands to drop the knife, which were ignored and the knife had to be forcefully removed from the defendant’s hands.”
After Aguilar-Mendez was handcuffed, Kunovich collapsed at the scene of a heart attack and later died at a local hospital.
Police said Aguilar-Mendez resisted arrest for six minutes. Police via News4Jax
Aguilar-Mendez was charged with aggravated manslaughter of an officer and resisting arrest with violence and remains behind bars without bond.
In a motion for a bail package, his former public defender wrote that he lived in a room at the Super 8 with other immigrants and was on the phone with his mother when Kunovich approached him.
The lawyer claims he did not know why he was being detained and called his family during the struggle.
The migrant’s new attorney, Philip Arroyo, told Action Jax last week that he believes his client’s civil rights were violated and called the situation a “grave injustice.”
But Hardwick has defended his officers’ actions, claiming that Aguilar-Mendez’s refusal to comply led to the tragedy.
Officers from Florida and beyond attended Kunovich’s funeral in May in Jacksonville, including his two young children.
“What many don’t know is how proud we are of him, his hard work and his moral guidance,” his son, Michael Kunovich Jr., said, according to the Florida Times-Union. “He had the extraordinary ability to come home after a long shift and be a dad.”
Categories: Trending
Source: vtt.edu.vn