Driver shot by Miami cop near Bayfront facing 4 felonies, but judge sets low bond

Miami Herald

29-05-2025

The driver of a BMW shot by a Miami police officer while he was on the hood of the car outside a music festival last weekend was charged Thursday with four felonies and two misdemeanors — while he was recuperating in the hospital.
But his bond was considerably less than expected after a judge denied a request from state prosecutors to keep the man behind bars.
Menelek Emmanuel Clarke was being treated at Jackson Memorial Hospital with three bullet wounds when Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Mindy Glazer convened the Zoom hearing. She questioned probable cause in three of the charges, denied the state's request for pre-trial detention and set the shooting victim's bond for all the charges combined at $8,653.
READ MORE: A Miami cop on car hood shot driver through windshield at music festival. Is it permitted?
Clarke, 21, is facing charges of aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer, leaving the scene of an accident, fleeing and eluding law enforcement and resisting arrest with violence, all felonies. He's also been charged with failure to obey a police officer and reckless driving, both misdemeanors.
When Glazer questioned three of the charges, including leaving the scene and fleeing and eluding, Clarke's attorney Michael Orenstein agreed, saying his client wasn't trying to get away from police.
'He was shot multiple times,' Orenstein told the judge.
Clarke was shot inside his car on Biscayne Boulevard at Northeast Second Street early Sunday evening, just after the start of a Caribbean music festival at Bayfront Park called the Best of the Best. His mother had just gotten out of the car to meet family and get tickets.
Clarke's sister was in the back seat during the shooting. She said her brother did not hit the officer intentionally and was slowly trying to turn past him.
Cellphone video of the incident posted on YouTube and Only in Dade begins with Miami police officer Mauricio Delgado clinging to the car's hood, his weapon in his right hand pointed into the vehicle only inches from the front windshield.
The car slowly makes its way north on Biscayne Boulevard and begins to turn west on Northeast Second Street, when Delgado fires at least three times. The vehicle stops directly in front of a Miami police car. Clarke jumps out of his car in a white shirt and jeans and walks quickly east toward the park, his hands going down to his waist, then up in the air as ordered.
It doesn't appear as if he's injured. He obeys police commands to go to the ground, turns over and is handcuffed. Blood can be seen on the back of his shirt as an officer gets on top of him.
Delgado was treated for minor injuries and released.
Orenstein said Clarke was shot three times, in the right arm, his chest — which collapsed his lung — and in his thigh.
Miami Police policy says officers should avoid firing at moving vehicles unless someone inside the vehicle — not the vehicle itself — poses a severe threat to the officer or anyone else. No weapon was found on Clarke.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the shooting.