No charges for Miami-Dade sergeant after high-speed chase ends in fatal shooting
Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Kelvin Cox won’t be facing criminal charges for shooting and killing 24-year-old Kristofer Lazaro Laboy last year after a high-speed chase that started over tinted windows and ended in gunshots, records show.
In a close-out memorandum signed Tuesday, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office wrote that its investigation of the fatal shooting on June 17, 2025, found that the sergeant’s actions were “legally justified.” Prosecutors will not be pressing any criminal charges.
“These objective facts establish that a reasonable person in Sergeant Cox’s position would have believed that using deadly force was necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to Sergeant Cox and/or others,” the memo read.
On June 17, Det. Oliver Morris, with MDSO’s Robbery Intervention Detail, noticed a yellow Chevrolet Corvette with “very dark” windshield tints in the area of Northwest 66th Street and 22nd Avenue, authorities said.
READ MORE: Deputy shoots, kills armed man after ‘simple traffic stop’ goes wrong, MDSO says
He tried to pull over the car, driven by Laboy, but it sped away from him — sparking a brief chase. The detective, at some point, stopped following, and a helicopter was called in and quickly spotted the Corvette, which video from the copter showed was “driving recklessly throughout residential neighborhoods,” the memo reads.
Laboy drove on the wrong side of the road, blew through stop signs, sometimes went off the road and nearly caused crashes, the investigation found.
About four minutes after the helicopter joined the pursuit, Sgt. Cox and Sgt. Ryan Aguilera followed Laboy into a housing complex in the area of Northwest Fourth Court and 85th Street. Laboy drove onto a grassy area, but reached a dead end.
Body-worn camera footage from the deputies captured the ensuing fatal moments. Cox screamed “put the gun down” before Laboy got out of the Corvette.
READ MORE: Man shot dead by deputy after traffic stop had gun, released video shows
Prosecutors and deputies said when Laboy exited the car he had a Sig Sauer P320-M18, with a round in the chamber, in his right hand and ran toward Cox’s parked car.
“Sergeant Cox exclaimed ‘oh s---,’ opened his front driver’s door and discharged his firearm approximately eight times, striking Laboy,” the memo reads.
Cox told Laboy, as he lay shot on the grass, to “drop the f------ gun.”
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue pronounced him dead at the scene.
Prosecutors said the “protracted” high-speed chase, endangering the lives of many, and Laboy’s holding of a firearm contributed to their finding that no wrong-doing was done by Cox.
The Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office said it will not comment on the State Attorney’s Office’s decision, but that an internal-affairs investigation is still ongoing.
Laboy’s family could not be immediately reached for comments.
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