Memory Card In Mouth Preserves Police Execution Video

Video: Miami Beach Memorial Day Shooting May 30th 2011, cellphone video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXpMzT5y ... r_embedded

Footage of police shooting recorded on a cellphone by Narces Benoit.

By Suzanne Choney

A police shooting of a man in Miami Beach on Memorial Day was terrifying, but when it was over, officers turned their attention to a man filming the violent scene with his cellphone. They demanded the device, smashed it and probably thought that was that; no video anymore. It was not: Narces Benoit had had the presence of mind to pull the phone's memory card with the video on it from his cellphone and put the card in his mouth.

That action saved the video you see above, showing the police shooting dead a suspect at the end of a chase, and some of what happened to Benoit. It was after the shooting ended that police turned their sights on Benoit, who had been darting behind trees and stop signs, filming with his HTC Evo phone.

At about 1:38 into the video, we see and hear a police officer turn to Benoit and shout: "Gimme the phone now!"

Benoit's response: "I ain't got no weapon!"

And he did not: But more and more cellphones are becoming weapons of sorts to police, who are finding themselves filmed in public places and not liking it. Just about everyone has a cellphone, and just about every cellphone now shoots video of some kind.

In New Jersey, the ACLU is pursuing the case of a high school student who used her phone to take video of police on a city bus who arrested a man, then took her into custody because she refused to turn her cell phone off. Police later released the teen, but not before erasing the video on her phone.

Benoit and his girlfriend got into their car to leave, but not before a police officer turned his gun on the couple (see it at about 2 minutes into the video), demanding they get out of the car. The couple complied.

"They put guns to our heads and threw us on the ground,â€