One of the victims in last month’s case of force used by five Hispanic Miami Beach officers is now claiming that the cops involved “bragged” about beating him and two others following an arrest attempt in the lobby of Royal Palm Hotel in South Beach.
Khalid Vaughn, 28, is one of two men, the other being 27-year-old Sharif Cobb, who found themselves beaten and handcuffed on July 26, after they decided to film the violent arrest of a third Black man they did not know, 24-year-old Dalonta Crudup.
Crudup was detained after fleeing to the hotel after he allegedly illegally parked his scooter and later injured a bicycle officer with his vehicle, sending him to the hospital.
An investigation was launched following the initial release of the surveillance footage. However, over the weekend, Vaughn, who had been in town from New York with Cobb for the Rolling Loud music festival at the time of the incident, released new clips alleging that cops boasted about the altercation in a lengthy post uploaded to his Instagram account on Friday, Aug. 13.
As previously reported and similarly to what Vaughn reiterated in his post, Crudup was already in handcuffs when Vaughn decided to start recording, telling officers, “He is already in cuffs, you don’t have to beat him.” It was then cops ordered the young man to step back — which he did. Still, “I was speared by an officer, elbowed in the face by another then ultimately jumped by officer and arrested,” he added.
He continued, “They sat me in front of the hotel bleeding, where I was then taunted by officers bragging about how good they beat me. One officer even took the Gatorade that I was carrying.” Vaughn noted that the officer drank the Gatorade, threw the bottle at him, and said, “You look thirsty!”
In one of the several videos Vaughn shared, an officer ordered him to stand “20 feet away from us. 20 f-cking feet away, let’s go,” before he too was assaulted. The clip showed officer Robert Sabater tackle him, put his arms around him, and thrust him toward a large Art Deco column. “As my friend Sharif recorded what was happening to me, an officer then grabbed him by his hair, slammed him to the ground face first,” Vaughn wrote.
According to the arrest report obtained by Local 10 News, an officer punched Cobb in the chest, and he “suffered a swollen left lip and scrapes on his ankles.” When fire rescue personnel took Vaughn to Mount Sinai Medical Center “for the laceration” on his face he required stitches.
Vaughn and Cobb were accused of resisting arrest after allegedly violating a new city ordinance. Prosecutors later dropped the charges against them.
On Aug. 2, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle announced that Sgt. Jose Perez and officers Sabater, Kevin Perez, Steven Serrano, and David Rivas were charged with battery — a first-degree misdemeanor — however, more charges may follow.
Vaughn concluded his post by explaining that he had never been arrested before and that he did not believe “that all police officers are inherently bad, but the ones I encountered on this day bring shame to the job of being an officer.” He added, “They are the reason why Black people live in fear.”
