6 Suspended in Murder Probe : Fatal Beating Heaps New Troubles on Miami Police

This city has been vexed as much by its cops as its robbers, with police scandals putting a tenth of the force out of work, under suspension or in jail.

If it is not the cash that disappeared from the vice squad safe, it is the bales of marijuana that were lifted from the padlocked bins of the department’s central compound.

Officers have been caught selling the drugs they were meant to confiscate, then making their getaways in patrol cars driven by men in blue uniforms.

Monday, in its latest crisis, the nation’s most troubled police department faced the possibility that some among its 1,000 officers may even have committed murder.

Six veteran detectives have been suspended for their alleged roles in the “frenzied” and fatal beating of a suspected drug dealer.

According to several witnesses, the policemen dragged Leonardo (Cano) Mercado, 35, into his own house, then mercilessly pummeled, kicked and clubbed him late Friday afternoon.

No charges have been filed yet. Investigators are expected to complete their probe later this week. In the meantime, the officers have surrendered their guns and badges.

“I don’t know how to express how we feel, how my Administration feels,” said Perry Anderson, the fourth Miami police chief in five years. “We are very saddened by this incident.”

Involved are some officers thought to be among the city’s finest.

One of them, Detective Ronald Sinclair, says he is not a brutal man. “I’m not a monster. I’m not a troublemaker. I’m not a supervisor’s nightmare. I’m a professional policeman . . . “ he told the Miami Herald.

But Sinclair is also part of the undercover street narcotics unit, and they deal with the roughest of situations. “You know how tough our job is?” he demanded. “We can’t win. We just can’t win.”

Chief Anderson is expected to move quickly to overhaul the busy narcotics unit, a tight-knit group of 15 cops who make undercover buys in the neighborhoods where drug trafficking is heaviest.

The suspended officers will continue to be paid while the department investigates the statements of about 30 people.

Those witnesses include many of Mercado’s friends and relatives. They were with him on the tattered sofas of his sandy front yard when three unmarked police cars pulled up.

“The cops didn’t use the gate; they just jumped right over the fence, shouting: ‘We got you!’ ” said Rafael Mercado, the dead man’s brother.

Marched Inside

Cano Mercado, a Puerto Rican native with a long criminal record for drugs, auto theft and assault, was marched into the house. The police shut the door. They fixed the lock.

Minutes later, the screaming began.

At one point, according to witness Juan Marrero, one of the detectives came outside to retrieve a metal bar from the trunk of his car.

“I looked through the window and saw that cop hit Cano over the head,” Marrero said. “Then they put up a bed sheet so we couldn’t see.”

Some of the witnesses scrambled around. One of Mercado’s stepsons, Pedro Soto, 14, leaned through an open window. He said he saw his stepfather trying to rise from a bed only to be shoved back down.

Another stepson, Jose Soto, 16, said one detective dragged him into the living room through the front door. He was forced to look at his bloodied stepfather lying on the floor.

When the beating was finally over, paramedics were called. Mercado was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead.

“Why would they do this?” demanded Maritza Soto, the dead man’s common-law wife. “He used to love everybody. He’d give anyone anything they wanted.”

Friends say Mercado owned a video arcade and a restaurant on the same run-down block where he died.

Tussle Over Knife

In a sketchy version released Friday, police described the incident as a tussle over a knife found at the scene. But later police spokesmen said they were unsure if Mercado had attempted to use the knife.

Days before the beating, one of the suspended officers, Pablo Camacho, was threatened in an anonymous letter sent to the department. The note said there was a murder contract on the officer’s life.

“Mercado tied into the letter in some way,” said police spokesman George Law, adding there were as yet few confirmed details about the entire event.

Shortly after their 4:30 p.m. roll call on Friday, the six detectives went looking for Mercado. They had no warrant. The beating occurred half an hour later.

The suspended detectives are Camacho, Sinclair, Andy Watson, Tommy Trujillo, Nathaniel Veal Jr. and Charlie Haynes.

Camacho is popular and well-known here, a frequent guest on Cuban-radio talk shows. He speaks eloquently about crime prevention.

Like Veal and Sinclair, he already is on the department’s “Early Warning System,” a roster of officers whose conduct is scrutinized because they so frequently have been involved in violent arrests.

Two additional men under suspension are the street narcotics unit leader, Lt. Michael Christopher, and Sgt. Manuel Orosa.

They were faulted for failing to secure the crime scene and allowing the six others to leave that scene and discuss the beating with each other.