MIAMI -- Officer Ernest Urtiaga, found innocent of manslaughter in the killing of an ex-convict, became the second of four policemen in Dade County to be acquitted of charges in the fatal shootings of black suspects.
Urtiaga, 27, was acquitted Tuesday after taking the stand in his own defense to tell a Dade County Circuit Court jury that he shot the suspected truck thief because he thought Nelson tried to grab his shotgun as he frisked him.
The six-year veteran of the Metro-Dade County Police Department was charged with manslaughter for the Oct. 20, 1982 slaying.
Urtiaga told jurors he ordered suspect Nelson to spread-eagle against a car while he held a shotgun to his back and frisked him.
'At that time I felt some type of contact on the barrel,' Urtiaga said. 'I don't know if it was the arm, the back, I don't know what it was.'
When he thought he felt Nelson reach for his gun, he pulled away and fired, Urtiaga said, because 'there was no doubt in my mind whatsoever that he was turning around and he was going to grab my shotgun.'
Prosecutor Sam Rabin had accused the officer of being careless and said he should have allowed his partner to frisk Nelson.
Urtiaga is one of four police officers charged recently in the killings of black suspects. Metro-Dade Detective Thomas Pellechio was acquitted May 26 in the death of a black jailer.
The other two trials are scheduled later this summer, including that of Miami Officer Luis Alvarez, 32, who goes on trial Aug. 20 on manslaughter charges in the death of Nevell Johnson Jr., 20.
The fatal shooting of Johnson in a video game room sparked three days of violence in the predominantly black Overtown slum last December.
