ORLANDO, Fla. – A grand jury cleared an Orlando police officer who shot and killed a man in downtown Orlando last summer, according to the state attorney’s office.
The Orange-Osceola state attorney’s office on Monday said a grand jury did not “believe charges against the officer were legally appropriate” in the July 2023 fatal shooting of Derek Diaz.
Police said Diaz, 26, disobeyed commands of officers and one of them shot him because he made a “quick movement” as if to retrieve a firearm. Diaz was pronounced dead at a hospital.
“The state attorney’s use of force policy requires all cases where deadly use of force was used by law enforcement officers to be presented to a grand jury to determine whether criminal charges are appropriate. The grand jury was presented with all relevant evidence in the case and returned a no true bill,” the state attorney’s office said in a release.
The officer who opened fire was placed on administrative leave after the shooting while the Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigated. Its investigation was then turned over to the state attorney’s office.
The police department released a statement on the grand jury’s decision:
As standard procedure, FDLE conducted an independent investigation into the Officer Involved Shooting from July 3, 2023, involving Officer Jose Velez. We were notified that the Grand Jury review by the State Attorney’s Office has since been finalized. Now that the independent investigation is complete, our Internal Affairs Unit will conduct an internal review. Officer Jose Velez resigned from the Orlando Police Department in November 2023 not in relation to this incident. Chief Smith supports the decision of the Grand Jury.
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Diaz’s family and attorneys held a news conference in July 2023 following the release of body camera videos from the Orlando Police Department and said they were left with more questions than answers.
“What we saw on the video was what we always knew, that Derek was peacefully — because he’s a peaceful person by all accounts — that an unarmed Derek Diaz was sitting peacefully in a legally parked car when he was aggressively approached by three armed police officers and in less than one minute he was shot and bleeding,” attorney Natalie Jackson said.
One of the videos showed several officers approaching a vehicle that Diaz was sitting in, and asking him to turn off the car. He is seen holding his phone and another item in his hands before the officer asks him to put both hands on the steering wheel.
Video shows the officer then opening the door and telling Diaz to put his hands on the steering wheel again. Diaz is seen in the video with one hand in the air while opening the center console of the vehicle.
“Put your hands on the steering wheel, put your hands on the steering wheel,” the officer yells before gunshots are heard in the video.
The state attorney’s office said, “The grand jury declined to issue a presentment on the case and chose not to issue a statement on the circumstances surrounding the shooting.”
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