Miami Police Officers Use Mugshots of Black Suspects for Target Practice

The North Miami Beach Police Department is under fire after officers used real mugshots of black suspects for target practice at a gun range.

Maj. Kathy Waterman hit back at accusations that the targets are racist in an interview with the Huffington Post, claiming that other targets show only white men, others are all Latino and another is just women. “We have targets of all races,” she said.

"The public thinks there should be one woman and one white man and one black, but that's not really what test is about," Katerman told HuffPost.

Police Chief Scott Dennis said his officers used poor judgement, but also denied the act was racist in nature.

Police chief defends use of photos of real people for target practice. @NBC6 Investigation #humantargets pic.twitter.com/wYfvLcyUFa

— Willard Shepard (@WillardNBC6) January 15, 2015

Police shoot pics of African American men at gun range. Chief says no racial profiling. At 11. #humantargets @nbc6 pic.twitter.com/lnip2aMF82

— Willard Shepard (@WillardNBC6) January 16, 2015

The targets were fired discovered after National Guard Sgt. Valerie Deant was at the range with her fellow soldiers and she witnessed officers shooting at targets that had her brother’s face on it.

“I was like why is my brother being used for target practice?” Deant told NBC Miami.

Deant’s brother was reportedly arrested for suspected involvement in a 2000 street race that killed two people. There were several other mugshots also included on the targets.