Details: Operation Southern Tempest was a joint federal-municipal effort assigned to nab gang members with ties to narcotics and illegal weapons.
A police officer on the task force shot and killed an unarmed black man near a Miami nightclub on Feb. 10, 2011. The victim, Travis McNeil, had no gang affiliation or contraband.
Plaintiffs case: After McNeil and his cousin Kareem Williams left the Take One Cocktail Lounge on 79th Street in Miami, they were pulled over by nine plainclothes officers in three unmarked cars.
“The officers did not suspect that McNeil was armed or a member of a gang,” McNeil family attorneys said in a statement. “He had at most committed a traffic violation. Yet rather than complete a typical traffic stop, three law enforcement vehicles converged on Mr. McNeil’s car and attempted to box him in.”