Boynton Beach IA probe clears two police officers in May 2021 fatal shooting at apartment complex
BOYNTON BEACH — An internal affairs investigation has cleared two Boynton Beach police officers in the shooting death of a man last May, according to a report the department released this week.
The city has not disclosed the names of the officers involved, saying that they invoked their rights to privacy under a 2018 amendment to the state constitution modeled after California's Marsy's Law.
The amendment allows crime victims or their families to have their names withheld from public reports. Since the amendment passed, officers from law-enforcement agencies across Florida have used it to shield their identities after shootings.
The investigation deemed that Boynton's officers used justified force in fatally shooting 27-year-old Christian Castro during a confrontation at the Via Lugano apartments.
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"Castro's actions made it clear that (the officers) were justified in defending themselves and other civilians," the internal affairs report read.
The Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office closed its investigation into the shooting November, also determining the officers were justified in using deadly force, according to the city's report.
Boynton Beach investigators said that Castro was armed with a knife and lunged at the officers after he ignored their commands to drop the weapon. He was shot multiple times and died at the scene. The officers were responding to a domestic disturbance involving Castro and others at the apartment complex, police said.
On Tuesday, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office submitted a motion to file a friend-of-the-court brief with the Florida Supreme Court seeking to argue in favor of the privacy amendment being applied to law-enforcement officers .
"This is a time of increasing peril for law enforcement officers in the United States," an attorney representing PBSO wrote in a filing related to a case involving two Tallahassee police officers who used the amendment to prevent their names from being released after use-of-force incidents.
The case between the city of Tallahassee and the union representing the city's police department stems from a May 2020 incident in which a person was shot and killed during a confrontation with police, according to the News Service of Florida. The Florida Police Benevolent Association argued that one of the two officers involved fired in self-defense and was a victim of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
The matter regarding shielding the officers' identities went before the First District Court of Appeal last year, with the court siding in favor of the police union. The ruling prompted Tallahassee officials to take the matter to the Florida Supreme Court.
In 2021, PBSO was involved two incidents in which deputies fired their weapons. One person in Lake Park died from from a self-inflicted wound after he exchanged gunfire with deputies, and another was arrested unharmed in suburban Boynton Beach after he shot and wounded a deputy, PBSO investigators said. In neither case did the agency identify the deputies involved.
PBSO invoked the Marsy's Law amendment for the first time in October 2020 after two deputies shot and killed a 20-year-old man, Ryan Fallo, during a confrontation in suburban Lake Worth.
The Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office later cleared the deputies, saying they used justified force.
While PBSO leaders have spoken in favor of shielding the names of law-enforcement officers, other policing agencies in the state have spoken against the measure.
Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gutalieri and Volusia County Sheriff Michael Chitwood were granted approvals to file amicus briefs with the Supreme Court arguing in favor of transparency.
"The public should know the identity of a police officer who uses force under the color of law," an attorney representing Gutalieri wrote in a motion filed last May.
jwhigham@pbpost.com
@JuliusWhigham
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Two Boynton Beach police officers cleared in 2021 fatal shooting
