LaToya Ratlieff was stumbling away from a cloud of tear gas in downtown Fort Lauderdale Sunday — choking, coughing and trying not to vomit — when a police officer shot a foam rubber bullet at her head.
The round, traveling more than twice the speed of a Major League fastball, smashed into her face just above the right eye, opening up a bloody gash. The impact brought Ratlieff, who was attending an anti-police brutality protest, to her knees. Her eye started to swell shut. Her eye socket was fractured, her medical records show. The projectile that likely struck her, known as a foam baton, has roughly the hardness of a racquet ball and is fired from a rifle-barreled launcher. Foam batons are considered a lethal munition when aimed at the head, according to the manufacturer’s manual.
Shooting Ratlieff in the face as she left the scene would seem to violate the Fort Lauderdale Police Department’s policy on proper use of so-called “less lethal munitions.”
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