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# Miami Police Kill 18-Year-Old Street Artist
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/miami-police-kill-17-year-old-street-artist/
- Published: 2013-08-09T19:56:22.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:34:52.000Z
- Description: Israel Hernández-Llach of Miami was tagging a shuttered McDonalds in Miami Beach when he was approached by police and fled. It's unclear exactly how the situation unfolded from there, but Hernández-Llach was soon dead, the result of a police tazering. The officers claimed that they shocked their vic
- Author: Mostafa Heddaya
- Tags: Opinion, Police, Street Art, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 06:59 (2012, 2013, part 2)

*The skateshop where Hernández-Llach worked posted this photo of him after his death.*

Israel Hernández-Llach was tagging a shuttered McDonald’s in Miami Beach when he was approached by police and fled. It’s unclear exactly how the situation unfolded from there, but Hernández-Llach was [soon dead](http://abcnews.go.com/ABC%5FUnivision/miami-taser-death-raises-questions-allegedly-lethal-weapon/story?id=19909919&ref=hyperallergic.com), the result of a police tasering. The officers claimed that they shocked their victim, the [541st person](http://electronicvillage.blogspot.com/2009/05/taser-related-deaths-in-united-states.html?ref=hyperallergic.com) to be killed by a Taser since the weapons were introduced in 2001, to “avoid a physical incident.”

Widespread coverage of the teen’s death cites Miami Beach police chief Ray Martinez’s public statement on the matter, which included condolences to the Hernández-Llach family. It’s a tawdry bookend to the quiet, thoughtful artist and photographer’s life, one cut short by a violent and hysterical culture of urban policing. It’s a crime catalyzed by an unhinged reaction to graffiti and enabled by a lethal weapon whose use by law enforcement has become nightmarishly casual.

According to the [*Miami Herald*](http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/08/07/3548779/graffiti-artist-dies-after-tasering.html?ref=hyperallergic.com), his family has retained an attorney and plans to seeks legal recourse for their son’s wrongful death. For it’s own part, the American Civil Liberties Union has issued a [statement](https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2013/08/08-7?ref=hyperallergic.com), denouncing the senseless death of “A teenager with a promising future … His apparent crime: graffiti.”

The ACLU document continues: “This is the latest in a long, tragic series of incidents in which the Miami Beach Police Department appears to have used excessive, disproportionate or lethal force. Unfortunately, the Miami Beach Police also have a troubling track record of a lack of transparency after such incidents.”

A troubling track record, [to be sure](http://thegrio.com/2013/05/30/miami-police-put-14-year-old-holding-a-puppy-in-choke-hold-for-dehumanizing-stares/?ref=hyperallergic.com) — this is just the flavor of the week: An 18-year old has half a million volts of electricity pumped into his flesh for putting unauthorized pigment on a wall. And those responsible, the public employees whose salaries his now-lifeless body’s labor once contributed to, then allegedly [stood around high-fiving each other](http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/08/07/3548779/graffiti-artist-dies-after-tasering.html?ref=hyperallergic.com) like misbegotten medalists in some grotesque bloodsport. Happy Friday.

*Editor’s note: This article originally stated, incorrectly, that Hernández-Llach was 17\. He was 18\. It has been corrected.*