Cops: "Stop calling 911" order wasn't made to victim in AK-47 rampage
SANFORD, Fla. -- Police in Florida say an officer wasn’t directing a “stop calling 911” comment to a woman who was fatally shot along with her 8-year-old son hours later.
Police were called to a home in the Orlando suburb of Sanford on March 27 after Latina Herring’s boyfriend called 911 to complain she had taken his keys.
Police bodycam video shows an officer saying, “We’re going to handle it” and “Stop calling 911 to make accusations you don’t know about.” But police say the comment was directed at “a third party complainant who continued to make 911 calls about the incident while officers were on scene.”
Extended bodycam video released by police appears to verify that the comment wasn’t directed at Herring, as an initial news report had claimed.
Police said Herring told officers the argument hadn’t become physical and the initial incident police responded to was a civil property dispute. Chief Cecil Smith said officers handled the incident properly.
Authorities say Herring’s boyfriend killed her and her son, Branden Christian, hours later.
Allen Cashe is accused in the fatal shooting, in which four others were also injured, CBS affiliate stations reported. Police said Cashe went to Herring’s home with an AK-47 and shot Herring and Branden, as well as his grandfather and brother.
According to a police report, the boys were sleeping on the couch at home when they were shot three times, WKMG-TV reported. Police said Cashe must have been standing directly over them when he fired, according to WKMG-TV.
After leaving the house, Cashe then allegedly shot two innocent bystanders, including a high school student waiting for a bus. A witness at the bus stop told WKMG-TV that Cashe stopped and said, “I’m sorry, but y’all are gonna die,” before firing about 10 shots.
“It was a horrible thing that took place over a set of keys,” Smith said. “Two people lost their lives, and four others are fighting for their lives right now.”
He didn’t have an immediate update on the surviving victims’ conditions.
Correction: An earlier version of this story inaccurately stated an officer who was seen in bodycam video saying “Stop calling 911 to make accusations you don’t know about” was speaking to Latina Herring, who police say was later killed by her boyfriend. The officer was speaking to a third-party 911 caller, police say.
