Florida Jury Gets Lozano Case; Governor Alerts National Guard

A jury began deliberating Thursday on whether a police officer was criminally negligent or acting in self-defense when he took aim and shot a speeding black motorcyclist, igniting a 1989 race riot.

In Miami, torn by riots four times in the 1980s, television sets in offices, schools and restaurants were tuned to live coverage of the manslaughter retrial of William Lozano, 33, a Colombian-born officer whose conviction was overturned in 1991.

National Guard troops, activated late Wednesday by Gov. Lawton Chiles as the case headed to closing arguments, trickled into a downtown armory to pick up riot gear.

In Orlando, where the trial was moved in hopes of getting a more impartial jury, prosecutor Jerald Bagley said the shooting was not an accident and not self-defense.

“He points, he aims, he tracks and he fires one shot,” Bagley said, standing before the six-member jury with his hands together and arms outstretched. “That’s an intentional act.”

Lozano lawyer Roy Black appealed to the jurors’ emotions about the dangers to police officers in crime-plagued areas such as the predominantly black Overtown neighborhood where the shooting took place.

Black, who called no witnesses, emphasized reasonable doubt based on inconsistencies in the stories told by five witnesses.

“Do you believe that if he did not believe his life was in danger, he would kill somebody?” Black said in a rising voice.

“Today, it seems the criminal is right and the police officer is wrong,” Black added. “That’s the Alice-in-Wonderland world that our police officers operate in. If the demagogues and politicians succeed in making this a crime, God help us all.”

But prosecutor John Hogan said: “This is not an indictment of police officers. This is an indictment of one man who killed needlessly.”

Prosecutors contend that Lozano was criminally negligent in the Jan. 16, 1989, shooting. A motorcycle was speeding away from another officer in a patrol car when, according to five witnesses, Lozano stepped into the street and fired into the opposite lane of traffic. The single gunshot killed Clement Lloyd, 23, instantly. His passenger, Allan Blanchard, 24, died of injuries sustained in the ensuing crash.