Police body cam released in shooting death of 84 year old veteran

How a violent confrontation led to a military veteran's death

Local 10 News
By Amy Viteri - Investigative Reporter
April 30, 2019

Attorneys say apartment complex pushed fragile man over the edge

"He is a veteran. He has a disability of a visual problem," Harkow said on the call. "I would say he's grossly depressed because the apartment where he is living is evicting him. He told me he was going to kill his two dogs and himself."

HOMESTEAD, Fla. - It was a story that shocked a South Florida community last year: An elderly military veteran with a gun was shot down by police in a hail of bullets.

New body camera video given to Local 10 News showed how and why it happened, and how possible discrimination by the man's apartment complex could have contributed to his death.

"For the love of God, man, please put your hands up!" an officer can be heard shouting in exclusive body camera video obtained by Local 10 News.

The video details the desperate standoff between Miami-Dade police officers and 84-year-old Raymond Bishop. Bishop, a disabled military veteran, was threatening to shoot himself inside his apartment.

"I do not want to hurt you," said one officer. "Sir you are a veteran. You are a hero to us. Please do not do this!"

The video is from February 2018, after a 911 call from Bishop's social worker Jaye Harkow with the Department of Veteran Affairs, brought officers to the Hidden Grove apartments near Homestead.
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Florida soldier killed in Afghanistan returns to somber Homestead

Florida soldier killed in Afghanistan returns to somber Homestead

Army Spc. Gerardo Campos, 23, came home to Homestead in a flag-draped coffin Tuesday, 10 days after he was killed by enemy gunfire in Afghanistan just weeks into his first overseas assignment.

BY CAROL ROSENBERG
A fallen Florida soldier came home in a flag-draped coffin Tuesday to a somber hero’s welcome at Homestead Air Reserve Base from 200 U.S. forces and weeping family members.

Army Spc. Gerardo Campos, 23, of Homestead was killed in Afghanistan on June 2.

An infantryman, he was on his first overseas deployment from his U.S. Army base in Washington state and left behind a wife and 10-month-old daughter. The soldier had just deployed to Afghanistan in April, according to the military, meaning he had been serving abroad for just weeks.
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USS Cole survivor died after years of PTSD

Obituary: Johann Gokool of Homestead, victim of attack on the USS Cole

BY ELINOR J. BRECHER
ebrecher@MiamiHerald.com
The October 2000 terrorist assault on the USS Cole killed 17 sailors and injured 39, among them Petty Officer 3rd Class Johann Gokool of Homestead, an electronic warfare technician who lost his left leg.

Last Wednesday, a week after his 31th birthday, Gokool transitioned from survivor to victim. Relatives say he died in his bed, apparently during one of the violent panic attacks that had plagued him since the incident.

His younger brother found Gokool about 7 p.m. on Dec. 23 in the house they shared. Medical examiners still haven't said what killed him, but relatives believe that a deadly attack stopped his heart.

The U.S. Navy classified Gokool 100 percent disabled due to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The attacks came without warning, lasting from a few minutes to hours, and because of them, Gokool couldn't work, drive or even bowl -- his favorite pastime.

``He was afraid of having an attack with a ball in his hand,'' said his sister, Natala, 29. ``I'll pick him up to go somewhere and he'll sit in the back seat so if he has an attack, he won't distract or hurt me.''

Gokool, say relatives, frequently stayed up all night chatting online with military buddies around the world, During the day, ``he couldn't make plans,'' his sister said. ``He didn't like to be in public in strange places . . . He'd be stuck in his room for days. He lived like an owl.''

He talked about the explosion ``all the time,'' she said. ``Anybody who would listen, he would talk.''
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Johann Gokool of Homestead, victim of attack on the USS Cole

Confederate flag vs American flag all over again in Homestead FL

If they think this is a way to honor all parts of our history, then fine, but they better find a lot of Native Americans to add their fight against US forces as well as going all the way back to the Revolutionary War and the loyalist that tried to kill the Patriots. It was not just the Civil War that pitted American against American in battle. So why have it that way now?

The Civil war put American against American. Both sides had ancestors fighting and dying for what they believed in this nation divided. Since there are no living Civil War veterans, perhaps the parade to have Confederate descendants in is Memorial Day instead of Veterans Day. After all, this is the one day out of the year that is just for our nation's veterans, in other words, living veterans of a united nation, all serving together, no matter what their ancestors believed in or side they took. Veterans come from all over the nation, every city and town as Americans and this day, this one day, should honor that to honor them.

Amid Confederate flag flap, veterans aim to save Homestead Veterans Day Parade
By TANIA VALDEMORO
tvaldemoro@MiamiHerald.com
The Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 121 has marched in the annual Veterans Day Parade in Homestead for at least a dozen years.

They hope to march this November, too, and that parade organizers can find a solution to resolve the controversy that erupted over a group of Confederate descendants marching with a battle flag for the first time in 2008.

''We don't want the parade to be canceled,'' said Dennis Magno, a member of the Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 121.

Since the Homestead/Florida City Chamber of Commerce leaders voted unanimously to disband the parade after the controversy erupted, veterans and residents have been calling the chamber to oppose canceling the parade, said Jerome Williams, the chamber president.

On Thursday morning, officials from the chamber's military affairs committee unanimously voted to defer making any decisions on continuing or disbanding the popular 47-year-old event.
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Veterans aim to save Homestead Veterans Day Parade