Davie police officers were responding to a desperate call for help last Friday: A 12-year-old girl had told the 911 operator that she had woken up in the middle of the night and gone to her father’s room, when she discovered him face down, not breathing.
Then the night got worse. While paramedics treated the father, a man named Steven Amann arrived at the house, acting strangely, according to police and newly released body-worn camera footage. When he suddenly drew out his cellphone as if it were a gun, one or more officers shot him six times, according to a dispatcher incident report.
The father, meanwhile, was taken to the hospital, where he also died, according to Sgt. Kelvin Urbaez.
“The Davie Police Department remains committed to transparency in our investigations,” an updated media release said. “We will continue to work with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to ensure that a thorough investigation is conducted. Please understand that we are still in the initial stages of this investigation process.”
The police shooting is now under investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Two Davie police officers and a sergeant are on temporary administrative leave. The release identified them as Sgt. Steve Lambert, Officer Matthew Correa, and Officer Jarett Wheeler.
A little after 12:30 a.m., the 911 call came in.
“I woke up in the middle of the night to go to my dad’s room upstairs,” a girl said frantically. “I found him face planted on the floor and he doesn’t have a pulse. And his face looks a little bit pale.”
She said she was with her 13-year-old sister, according to the dispatcher’s report.
“Are you with your dad now?” the dispatcher asked.
“No, he’s upstairs,” the girl replied, her voice shaking.
The dispatcher told her to go upstairs to help her father and have her sister go downstairs to unlock the door.
“Stay on the line with me, we’re getting some help,” she said. About a minute later, paramedics arrived, where they began CPR.
Just before 1 a.m., about 20 minutes after the initial call, the three-minute clip of Correa’s body-worn camera footage began. He had just emerged from the house to speak to Amann, who had appeared outside.
“Stay right here, don’t move,” Correa told him. Then he asked, “Who called you? How did you know to get here, man?”
“I called the son because he wouldn’t pick up his phone,” Amann said slowly.
“So you called his son?”
Amann nodded.
“Did he have more drugs, that you know of? Correa asked.
“No.”
“No, it’s not possible he had more, after you left?”
Amann shook his head.
Correa then asked him to lift his shirt so he could check for weapons.
Amann did not respond. Another officer walked up and the two checked his shirt, telling him not to move.
Amann was “mostly non-verbal and did not answer any of the officers’ questions,” according to the Davie Police release, adding that he avoided eye contact and ignored officers.
“This guy just showed up out of nowhere, he just goes to walk in,” Correa said to the other officer, the footage shows. “Apparently he’s a friend of him, he went with him earlier … these two did fentanyl and heroin earlier in the day.”
Urbaez could not confirm whether the father, who was not identified, had taken drugs, saying he could not talk about a person’s medical condition.
Officers told Amann to sit down and to pick up his phone. Correa then went in to check on the kids; that footage is blurred with no sound due to privacy concerns, Urbaez said.
Correa came out a few seconds later, while Amann began to pick up some belongings from the ground. Officers told him to take a seat again, but he remained standing. Then Correa began to explain the situation to another officer, possibly the sergeant. He said that he did not know who Amann was, and that the father did not have legal custody of his children and was an addict.
While they spoke, Amann began to back away from them slowly with his hands behind his back. Then, suddenly, he crouched behind a ledge next to the home’s entrance and pulled out an object in a “shooting stance,” according to the release.
One of the officers took cover while Correa ran into the house, the footage shows, a round of shots heard in the background. Then the footage cuts out.
Urbaez later said the object was a cellphone. Amann had been shot six times, according to the report. He was “immediately tended to” by paramedics already on scene, according to the release.
The FDLE investigation into the shooting remains active, police said, and will determine whether officers face any disciplinary consequences.