Valerie Deant was outraged after discovering her brother’s mugshot was been used as a target (Picture: NBC6/ Twitter)

North Miami Beach police have been criticised for using the mugshots of black suspects for target practice.

The bullet-riddled photographs were discovered last month by Florida resident Sgt Valerie Deant, a member of the National Guard 12th army band.

Speaking to NBC South Florida, she spoke of her horror at discovering that one of the mug shots being fired at was that of her brother.

She said: ‘I was like, why is my brother being used for target practice.


‘There were like gunshots there. And I cried a couple of times.’

Her brother, Woody Deant, who was 18 when he was arrested by North Miami Beach for drag racing, also spoke of his shock, and said that the photo was representative of a period in his life that he had long since left behind.



‘The picture actually has, like, bullet holes. One in my forehead and one in my eye. I was speechless,’ he said.

‘Now I’m being used as a target? I’m not even living that life according to how they portrayed me as. I’m a father. I’m a husband. I’m a career man. I work nine to five.’

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Speaking to the Huffington Post, Major Kathy Katerman of North Miami Beach Police denied that the choice of target had a racial bias.

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. We have targets of all race’.

Although North Miami Beach police chief J Scott Dennis admitted that it was poor judgment to use the mugshot of a person arrested in their jurisdiction, he denied that any discrimination had taken place and said that using real-life mugshots played an integral role in police training.

However, NBC News has since spoken to five local police departments in the area, who have all denied using actual mugshots as targets.

Alex Vasquez, a retired FBI agent told NBC: ‘The use of those targets doesn’t seem correct.

‘The police have different options for targets. I think the police have to be extra careful and sensitive to some issues that might be raised’.