‘Reckless and unreasonable’: Judge denies qualified immunity for Osceola deputies in 2023 Target shooting

In a stunning rebuke, a federal judge this week rejected the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office’s attempt to end a lawsuit over the September 2023 killing of Jayden Baez in a Target parking lot, ruling the deputies who killed him can face a civil trial.

In a 60-page ruling Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Gregory Presnell excoriated the actions of the deputies, including the dozens who used unmarked vehicles to box in a car carrying Baez, 20, and three of his companions and the two who opened fire when Baez tried to speed away.

The deputies had been training vehicle takedowns in unmarked cars when they were ordered to gear up and head to the Target store in Kissimmee in response to a reported shoplifting of $46 worth of pizza and Pokémon cards.

The incident shocked the community and put a spotlight on how the agency responded to minor crimes under then-Sheriff Marcos Lopez, who quickly defended his deputies and called Baez’s killing justified. While a grand jury probe cleared the two deputies who shot into the car — Ramy Yacoub, who fired the fatal shots, and Scott Koffinas — of criminal wrongdoing, it also slammed the agency’s policies as well as Lopez for declining to testify.

When Baez’s parents, as well as passengers Joseph Lowe, Michael Gomez and Ian Joi, filed a civil lawsuit, the deputies who shot into the vehicle moved to have it dismissed. Yacoub and Koffinas, who are defendants in the lawsuit, claimed they were acting in self-defense as law enforcement agents against a suspect who was trying to get away by attempting to bash through their vehicles. That means, they argued, they should be granted qualified immunity.

But Presnell pointed to “a series of reckless and unreasonable decisions” by the deputies he said “directly contributed to creating a dangerous situation.” Those included conflicting orders as Baez’s car was being surveilled, disputes over whether Target wanted to press charges and who authorized the takedown, not turning on emergency lights until after boxing in the car and — most critically — the use of undercover vehicles in response to a shoplifting.

In his order denying Yacoub and Koffinas immunity, he said the Sheriff’s Office was not justified in “diverting an undercover, 28-deputy battalion and helicopter to conduct a simple stop on a parked vehicle containing two petit thieves.”

Because of the quick convergence on Baez’s vehicle, with no lights and no clear sense that the deputies in a Dodge Ram and a Dodge Caravan were indeed law enforcement, Baez  “had less time to react between the Ram’s initial impact and the final collision with the Dodge Caravan than the reader will have to finish this sentence,” Presnell wrote.

The civil trial is expected to begin in April, with a final pre-trial conference scheduled for March 25.

“At its end,” Presnell wrote, “no members of the [Osceola County Sheriff’s Office] were injured; at least five vehicles were badly damaged, including the Audi and four [OCSO] undercover vehicles; Yacoub had fired 17 rounds into the passenger window; Koffinas had fired 14 rounds into the rear window; Baez was shot dead; Gomez was shot three times in the back and ribs; Lowe suffered gunshot wounds to both hands resulting in permanent disfigurement; Joi was slammed to the ground and detained for hours; countless civilians were traumatized; and a pizza and a handful of Pokémon cards were recovered.”

The ruling is a significant victory for lawyers representing the survivors and Baez’s parents, who long contended the Sheriff’s Office’s tactics that day were excessive and unnecessary. It’s also the first time since the shooting that a judge concluded the deputies’ emergency lights were off until they hit Baez.

Presnell further noted that the question of whether the deputies identified themselves as law enforcement — disputed even among the deputies themselves in depositions cited in the ruling — should be decided by a jury.

“The only discernable justification for the deputies’ insistence on forcing the Takedown is that they were eager to practice their training; and that is not a lawful justification,” wrote Presnell, describing the takedown’s execution as “sloppy” as deputies testified in depositions “to having no idea who was firing or where the bullets were coming from.”

Mark NeJame, a critic of Lopez whose law firm represents the plaintiffs, told the Orlando Sentinel he was gratified by the ruling ahead of the civil trial. “Our team has worked incredibly hard since this tragedy occurred. We look forward to securing justice for our clients,” he said.

The ruling ultimately represents the strongest rebuke of the machinations that ended in Baez being killed since the Osceola County grand jury that cleared Yacoub and Koffinas of criminal wrongdoing expressed “grave concerns” about what happened.

Presnell in his order, however, rejected a key claim that the agency’s actions and its public response to the incident were part of a pattern of violence by deputies encouraged by Lopez.

Lopez was reelected in 2024 despite backlash from Baez’s killing. Shortly after the grand jury decision to clear Yacoub and Koffinas became public, Lopez announced policy changes and a personnel shakeup. That included the firing of Maj. Wiley Black, who headed the division responsible for overseeing the training at the time of the shooting, though his termination went unexplained.

Lopez was removed from office in June after being arrested on racketeering charges.