Former Miami-Dade cop gets 7 years for attempted murder of boyfriend, police standoff
A former Miami-Dade police officer avoided a possible lengthy prison sentence Tuesday when she reached a plea deal with state prosecutors for stalking and shooting at her boyfriend during a car chase that led to a long standoff and shootout with police.
Evelyn Fernandez, 53, who rose to the rank of lieutenant during her 25-year law enforcement career was convicted of attempted murder as part of the plea deal and agreed to a seven-year sentence, 20 years probation, therapy and entering an alcohol awareness program. With time served, the most time she will spend in prison in six years.
The attempted murder charge could have landed her in prison for 25 years to life. She was arrested and taken into custody in October 2023 after after barricading herself in a Southwest Miami-Dade home and getting into a shootout with police sharpshooters.
As part of the deal, she can’t have contact with her ex-boyfriend or his kids and can no longer carry a firearm.
Violent standoff led to arrest
The hours-long standoff that landed Fernandez in jail began after police were called to a Redland home after shots were fired. Fernandez’s boyfriend — also a Miami-Dade police officer for what is now the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office — told police that she fired into his vehicle. He wasn’t injured.
Police tracked Fernandez to a home about five miles away, but by the time they arrived she was barricaded inside the home with several others, who eventually got out of the home without being harmed. Fernandez refused to leave during negotiations with Special Response Team members, even firing at them.
After more than 12 hours she was taken into custody.
Domestic incidents led to headlines
Fernandez made headlines before. She is the former girlfriend of past police director and former Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez. The couple got into several spats during their relationship that garnered media attention.
Alvarez was arrested on domestic violence charges in 2016 after Fernandez filed a domestic battery charge against him, accusing the former police director of grabbing and shaking her, pinning her against a wall and spitting on her. She blamed his mood swings on steroids.
Three months later, Fernandez was arrested and charged with burglary and criminal mischief for breaking into his Coral Gables apartment.
The charges against both of them were eventually dropped. The duo broke up and Fernandez was fired from the police department a year later. Alvarez left the mayor’s office in one of the largest recalls of a mayor in U.S. history. He became a competitive bodybuilder.
This story was originally published May 13, 2025 at 1:37 PM.
