The family of Evelyn Valdez, the young woman who died on her 28th birthday after being struck by a police bullet in the Wynwood neighborhood, met this Friday with the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office and left the meeting with little hope that the officers involved would face criminal charges, according to CBS Miami.
"All I want is justice for my daughter," declared Kristy Garcia, mother of Valdez, at the conclusion of the meeting.
The family's lawyer, Ramón Rasco, was more explicit about the expectations that arose from the meeting: "We assume that the officers involved in the shooting will not be prosecuted. But we still do not have a definitive decision."
The Prosecutor's Office, for its part, confirmed that it had met with the family, although it clarified that the case remains formally under review.
Valdez died in the early hours of June 14, 2025, while celebrating his 28th birthday with three friends in Wynwood.
I was sitting in the back seat of a parked Mazda CX-5 in front of the nightclub Electric Lady when a fight that had started inside the venue spilled out onto the street.
Sergeant Javier Herbello and Officer Dorian Acosta of the Miami Police opened fire on 30-year-old Norman Lindo Jr., who was armed.
Lindo died on the spot; a bullet also hit Valdez in the torso.
Both were taken to the Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital, where Valdez passed away approximately twenty minutes later.
Rasco underscored the seriousness of the circumstances surrounding the shooting: “The argument has been that they acted recklessly. 11 or 12 shots were fired on a street crowded with people in Wynwood at 3 a.m., at the peak of the crowd, when the clubs were closing.”
The civil lawsuit filed by the family in federal court claims that the officers fired at an angle of approximately 180 degrees over the busy street, without prior warning, and that Valdez took more than thirty minutes to reach the hospital, which is located just 2.1 kilometers from the scene.
Garcia described his daughter with words that reflect the weight of loss: "She was my world. She was my firstborn. She was the first in my family to attend university."
Valdez had obtained a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in Social Work from Barry University, and was working as a social worker at Baptist Health.
In July 2026, the family filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit against the City of Miami, the two officers, VIP Management Team Corp., the security company, and the operator of the club Electric Lady, alleging excessive use of force and systemic deficiencies in police training.
The case is set against a long-standing debate about police accountability in Miami: State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle, who has been in office since 1993, did not file charges against any officer for a shooting death while on duty during her first 27 years at the helm of the prosecutor's office.
The family believes that the final decision by the prosecutors could be announced next Tuesday, although the civil lawsuit will proceed regardless of the criminal outcome.
"I'm tired of waiting," said Garcia, who has been demanding answers regarding her daughter's death for over 16 months.
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