Man charged with attempted murder after police shot him has paraplegia, attorneys say
A man who was shot eight times by a Miami-Dade detective Friday after a traffic stop-turned-pursuit has paraplegia and couldn’t oblige to police orders demanding that he step out of his car, according to his attorneys.
The new account emerged after a Monday court filing detailed what happened during — and leading up to — a detective firing a barrage of bullets at Virgil French, who allegedly tried to run him over moments before.
READ MORE: A detective pinned to his car by a robbery suspect shot the man, Miami-Dade police say
According to police, French, 38, zoomed away from an attempted traffic stop at Northwest 70th Street and 18th Avenue. His escape from police lasted only until he ran his white Dodge Challenger into a wooden light pole at Northwest 63rd Street and 21st Avenue around 6:45 p.m.
As the detective started walking toward French’s Challenger, police say French drove it at the detective, pinning the officer between the Challenger and the officer’s car.
According to a law enforcement source, police tried pulling French over for an expired tag. French then took off and was pursued until he crashed into the light pole; shortly after, he accelerated and hit the detective with the car.
The officer then shot French, who was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital in stable condition. The detective was treated for leg injuries at Ryder Trauma Center.
A competing narrative
The attorneys’ court filing shed more light on the Friday evening incident involving French, who faces charges of attempted second-degree murder on a law enforcement officer, being a felon in possession of a firearm and third-degree grand theft with a firearm.
But French denies having a gun, according to the filing.
French, the filing says, was driving around Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood when a red Jeep-like vehicle began to follow him. He worried about possibly being in danger as he grew up in the area and has been the victim of crime.
As French made a turn, he lost control of the Challenger and collided with a pole, according to the filing. That’s when a man dressed in all black appeared in front of the car, pointing a gun at French.
The red car, unmarked and displaying no lights or sirens, was behind the Challenger, the filing says.
The man demanded that French put his hands in the air, to which he complied, according to the filing. The man fired through the windshield while French’s hands were up.
French was struck eight times, his attorneys say.
According to the filing, the car never moved as French drives with his hands. French became paralyzed after being shot by a neighbor in his 20s.
“The fact of the matter is that Virgil said his hands were in the in the air when they started shooting at him, and he’s a paraplegic,” attorney Joe Klock told the Miami Herald.
French realized the man was a detective when officers in “Robbery Unit” shirts ordered him to get out of the car, the filing says. Officers pulled French out of the Challenger and beat him in the face and stomach as well as other body parts.
The filing also alleges that police cut open French’s shirt and removed all his clothes, leaving him naked on the sidewalk for at least 20 minutes.
The Challenger, according to the filing, appears to have been hit in the rear or rear side bumper, which could have been caused by a PIT maneuver gone wrong. A PIT maneuver is a tactic used by law enforcement to force a fleeing vehicle to turn sideways, which causes the driver to lose control.
French was released from jail after bonding out on Sunday.
And last week wasn’t the first time French had a run-in with police. French has been arrested more than 15 times since 1998, although most cases were dropped, state records show.
He was convicted of giving police false information in 2003 and burglary of an occupied dwelling in 2006. According to the records, French was charged with a homicide in North Miami Beach in November 2022, but the case was eventually dropped.
Police tight-lipped on case
Miami-Dade police, in an email to the Miami Herald Monday, declined to comment, citing an active internal affairs investigation. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is now the lead agency on the case.
Steadman Stahl, president of South Florida’s Police Benevolent Association, said French initially slowed down when ordered by the officer before he took off. The officer, Stahl said, then lost sight of French’s vehicle, which crashed into a pole. When cops caught up with him, they ordered him out of the car.
“Instead of obeying officers commands, the subject accelerated his vehicle, striking one of the officers and pinning him between the subject’s vehicle and a police car,” Stahl said.
When the officer fired, the vehicle rolled backward and released the pinned officer.
“He was very lucky,” Stahl said. “This could have been a much more devastating situation.”
