The families of the victims killed in the Miramar police shootout have hired lawyers
Last week, when a pair of jewelry store robbers hijacked a UPS truck and led police on a high-speed chase turned shootout, two innocent people were killed. Both of their families have since hired lawyers to “hold those responsible accountable.”
The FBI took over the investigation and hasn’t released any information to clarify whose bullets killed the two men — the two robbers or the more than a dozen police officers who fired a hail of bullets in stopped traffic and used trapped cars as shields.
At the funeral for 27-year-old Frank Ordonez, a UPS truck driver who was hijacked and held hostage as the robbers fled the Coral Gables jewelry store, his mother said police had told her “nothing” since her son’s death. Her family has been loudly calling for accountability and openly questioning the police response.
This week, the family hired Adam Finkel of the Haggard Law Firm to represent them. He said his job is to find answers for the family, make sure it never happens to anyone else and provide for Ordonez’s two daughters, a 3-year-old and a 5-year-old.
“This was a tragic result that shouldn’t have happened,” he said. He declined to say if the family has received any new information from law enforcement recently.
On Friday, the relatives of 70-year-old union representative Richard “Rick” Cutshaw broke their silence with news that they, too, had hired a lawyer.
“What happened to Richard is a tragedy that no other family should have to bear. He was sitting in his car on his way from a job he loved, when the intersection around him erupted into a war zone. We cannot make sense of what happened to him; it’s unfathomable,” they wrote in a statement. “Our hearts are broken not only for our family but for that of Frank Ordonez as well.”
The family’s new legal counsel, Adrian Mendiondo of Morgan & Morgan, asked anyone with videos or photos of the crime scene to reach out. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has made a similar plea.
Mendiondo said he and the family were shocked at how aggressive the police response was toward the robbers in the hijacked truck.
“We don’t know what happened, but what we do know is the use of force in this situation put others in grave risk,” he told the Miami Herald. There were many other drivers on the road that day “who could have very easily been Mr. Cutshaw.”
“It is a miracle that only two innocent persons were killed, and we have promised Richard’s family that we will do everything in our power to hold those responsible accountable,” he wrote in a prepared statement.
This story was originally published December 13, 2019 at 3:17 PM.
