Homelessness
Police
Eight months after his firing for the viral incident, the officer is back on the beat.
By Alex DeLuca
May 23, 2024
The Miami Police Department has rehired a police officer who was fired in 2022 for pummeling a homeless man at Publix.Photo by Josh Hallett / Flickr
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A Miami police officer who was fired after being caught on video repeatedly punching a homeless man at Publix has been rehired.
In April 2021, Miami Police Department (MPD) officer Alexander Garcia-Contreras pushed, slammed, and pummeled a homeless man as he detained him for allegedly stealing chicken from a Publix supermarket on Biscayne Boulevard. Cellphone footage that quickly went viral online showed the officer violently taking the then-58-year-old man, Willie Barbor, into custody inside the grocery store's deli section.
Following a nearly 20-month-long probe into the incident, Garcia-Contreras was fired by the police department in November 2022.
In July 2023, just eight months later, he was promptly reinstated as a police officer, according to records obtained by New Times.
MPD spokesperson Orlando Rodriguez confirmedthat Garcia-Contreras' termination was "reversed" last summer and that he now patrols Miami's downtown area.
New Timesreached out to Miami's Fraternal Order of Police union for more information onGarcia-Contreras' rehiring but has not received a response.
On April 26, 2021, Garcia-Contreras was working an off-duty gig at the grocery store when the store manager informed him that Barbor had stolen and eaten a piece of cooked chicken from the deli, according to an arrest report.
When the manager asked Barbor to pay, he allegedly replied, "f*ck you. I don't have any money."
Miami Police officer suspended with pay pending investigation into violent arrest of homeless man accused of shoplifting chicken at Publix on Biscayne Blvd. and 17th Street #BecauseMiami #CafecitoTalk #MiamiTech: https://t.co/V0dFrh6VCW pic.twitter.com/7iExVOBjA8
— Billy Corben (@BillyCorben) April 28, 2021
Cellphone footage of the incident shared across social media shows Barbor backing away from Garcia-Contreras with his hands in the air when the officer pushes the man into a food stand, slams him onto the floor, and punches him repeatedly in the head. Nearby customers are heard gasping in shock.
Barbor was arrested on charges of petit theft, resisting without violence, and disorderly conduct, but prosecutors dismissed the criminal case against him days later.
Garcia-Contreras, who joined Miami's police force in 2015, previously had three citizen complaints and one administrative complaint against him, as well as seven use-of-force incidents, during his time with the department.
One of these incidents involved an encounter in whichGarcia-Contreras allegedly punched a man while taking him into custody after an altercation between the man and a security guard near a Wynwood club, where Garcia-Contreras was working an off-duty job. Internal affairs investigated and found Garcia-Contreras had acted "discourteously," according to a Local10 report.
Miami's police union previously told New Times that it had filed anappeal with the city regardingGarcia-Contreras'firing.
"We are standing by him. We are supporting him, and we will be defending him through the process," then-union president Tommy Reyes said.
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