Miami-Dade officers indicted in shootout that killed UPS driver, bystander in Broward
Four Miami-Dade police officers have been indicted in connection to a fatal shootout almost five years ago at a packed Broward County intersection, police sources confirmed to the Miami Herald.
The raging gun battle, involving 19 police officers from at least three agencies, occurred on Dec. 6, 2019, as clueless motorists lined Miramar Parkway and Flamingo Road. Earlier that day, two men had pulled off a jewelry heist in Coral Gables and hijacked a UPS truck.
That ignited a high-speed interstate chase — and a shootout that left the robbery suspects and two innocent men dead. For years, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and Broward State Attorney’s Office remained tight-lipped about the case. The FDLE completed its investigation in 2021, turning over its findings to prosecutors.
The names of the officers indicted — and the charges they face — are currently unknown.
READ MORE: After 3 years, families still don’t know who killed loved ones during UPS hijack shootout
“Grand jury proceedings are secret under Florida law, and any proceedings or actions taken by a grand jury are not public until a judge makes them so,” the Broward State Attorney’s Office said in a statement. “We are not at liberty to comment at this time.”
The Miami-Dade Police Department told the Miami Herald it didn’t have a comment as of Monday evening.
The officers were notified about the indictment and contacted the police union, said Steadman Stahl, the president of the South Florida Police Benevolent Association. They’re expected to turn themselves in some time next week.
“We’re extremely disappointed that after almost five years, these officers are finding themselves indicted for something they had seconds to decide,” Stahl told the Miami Herald. “It sends a chilling effect to officers in Broward County that their state attorney’s office prosecutes one officer for not responding to an active shooter and is now indicting officers for responding to active shooters. As the process moves forward, we will monitor it and defend our officers.”
Chaos on packed streets
The events leading up to the shooting began to unfold when 41-year-old Lamar Alexander and Ronnie Jerome Hill, dressed as couriers, walked into Regents Jewelers at 386 Miracle Mile in Coral Gables.
One of the men wore a flesh-colored mask and a U.S. Postal Service hat. They both had high-powered weapons — and fired them almost immediately. A bullet ricocheted off the floor and struck an employee in the head, though she survived.
When the store’s owner retrieved a weapon, a hail of bullets flew. The men, having taken tens of thousands of dollars in cash and jewelry, jumped into a truck. They ditched the vehicle at Southwest Eighth Street and carjacked Frank Ordoñez, a 27-year-old father of two making a routine delivery in his UPS truck.
Moments later, police began to pursue the truck, going after it on Interstate 75. But when the truck got stuck at the Miramar intersection, chaos ensued.
Officers shielded themselves behind cars. When the gunfire stopped, Hill and Alexander, who exchanged more than 200 rounds with officers, were dead.
But so were Ordoñez and a 70-year-old local union worker named Rick Cutshaw, who was heading home when the shooting began.
In 2020, Ordoñez’s family members filed a wrongful death lawsuit against six law enforcement agencies, claiming they were negligent. Broward Circuit Judge Keathan Frink dismissed the suit after determining that police couldn’t be held liable because of sovereign immunity, a tenet dating back to English common law that largely prevents governments from being sued without their consent.
Attorney Michael Haggard, who represented the family, had slammed the police’s actions as “pure recklessness.”
This story was originally published June 10, 2024 at 6:29 PM.
