The killing of a mentally ill West Kendall man by a Miami-Dade police officer — as his horrified mother watched him bleed out on her kitchen floor — has elicited a pledge of reform by county leaders eager to lessen the danger of encounters between police and people in crisis.
The shooting death of 21-year-old Richard Hollis and the plight of his mother, Gamaly Hollis – whose efforts to seek justice for her son led to her own arrest, prosecution and jailing – were detailed in a Miami Herald series, Guilty of Grief , in November.
Miami-Dade Public Defender Carlos Martinez invoked the family’s tragedy as he announced the formation of a work group of legal system leaders to study deadly use of force by police when they confront people with mental illness. The group will include State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, Chief Circuit Court Judge Nushin Sayfie, newly elected Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz and the president of the county chiefs of police association, Pete Delgado…