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Etianna Planellas

Age : 48

Gender : Female

Race : Latino/a/e

Date : 08/30/2021

Location : 68 NW 95 Street

City : Miami Shores

County : Miami-Dade

State : Florida

Agency : Miami Shores Police Department

Officer(s) :Not Disclosed

Cause of Death : Gunshot

Event : Killed by police during disturbance call

OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :

On 08/30/2021, at approximately 4:15 p.m., a Miami Shores Police Department officer responded to 68 NW 95th Street after police received a disturbance call involving 48-year-old Etianna Planellas. Police had responded to the residence on previous occasions. Planellas's relatives and longtime family friends said she had struggled with serious mental illness and depression for years and had previously been hospitalized for psychiatric treatment.
Family members said Planellas was intoxicated that afternoon. Other reporting based on interviews with people close to her stated that shortly before police arrived, Planellas had threatened to kill herself. She lived at the residence with several family members, including elderly relatives, and was described by a longtime family friend as the person who largely cared for the household.
According to Miami Shores Police Chief Kevin Lystad, the first responding officer encountered Planellas outside the residence holding what appeared to be a semiautomatic handgun. Police alleged that Planellas pointed the object toward the officer. Lystad said there was some dialogue between the officer and Planellas, including commands for her to put the weapon down, before the officer opened fire.
The officer fired multiple rounds, striking Planellas and killing her outside her home. A neighbor described hearing a rapid succession of gunshots. Planellas's relatives said she was killed in front of her elderly mother. No evidence located indicates that Planellas fired at the officer.
After the shooting, police discovered that the purported handgun was not a firearm. It was a black pellet/BB pistol made to resemble a semiautomatic handgun. Miami Shores Police released a photograph of the pellet gun after Planellas's death.
Planellas's relatives and friends publicly criticized the killing and questioned why an officer responding to a person with a known history of mental illness did not use a less-lethal response. Family friend Jorge Rodriguez described the shooting as excessive, while another longtime friend said officers should have recognized that Planellas was experiencing a psychiatric crisis.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement assumed responsibility for the investigation into the police shooting, with Miami-Dade Police homicide detectives also participating. The shooting officer was not identified in the contemporary reports. A deeper search of later reporting, FDLE-related material and records indexed under Planellas's name did not locate a reliable public identification of the officer who killed her.
Separately, only weeks after Planellas's killing, serious allegations of misconduct within the Miami Shores Police Department became public. The village asked FDLE and outside investigators to examine allegations that officers were not being held accountable for racial insensitivity and other misconduct. Those allegations concerned broader departmental practices and were not reported as findings concerning the unidentified officer who killed Planellas.

SOURCE LINKS :

https://www.local10.com/news/local/2021/08/30/authorities-investigating-deadly-police-involved-shooting-in-miami-shores/
https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/miami-shores-police-involved-shooting/
https://wsvn.com/news/local/miami-dade/woman-holding-pellet-gun-killed-in-police-involved-shooting-in-miami-shores/