Family, community demand answers after man shot by Collier County deputies

Nicholas Morales-Bessannia was shot and killed early Thursday by Collier County Deputies. His family still has more questions than answers.

“I don’t want to look at him like that, I never want to see him that way,” said Ismael Morales-Diaz, the victim’s nephew.

Deputies say Morales came at them with a shovel and gardening shears. After he refused to drop the weapons, shots were fired. But the family and some in the community think deputies may have fired too quickly.

“Justice. We want justice so that no more cases like this would happen,” said Morales-Diaz.

Susan Aiken has spent nearly 27 years as an FBI agent before she retired to Cape Coral. “We even look at a pen as a deadly weapon, when we have a suspect in custody or being interrogated,” said Aiken.

She says that any decision to shoot comes with caution. “You are being put in a position of
my life, the citizen’s life, or this individual’s life.”

She says that Morales-Bessannia did not comply. “He did not. He charged at them.”

But, Morales-Bessannia’s death is something that the deputy will have to live with.

“We wanted to go home at night to our families,” Aiken said. “Knowing that we were doing good for the community. And that is the whole goal of why people join law enforcement, and why they go out every day and put their lives on the line.”

With recent pushes to defund police and the number of police applicants down, Aiken truly fears that the future of law enforcement is in trouble.

Others just want more transparency, which for them, includes releasing the dashcam footage from that morning.

It has yet to be released because the incident is still under investigation.