Miami-dade Police Are Being Charged With Manslaughter for the Deaths of a UPS Driver and a Witness

Prosecutors said on Saturday that four Miami-Dade police officers are being charged with manslaughter for the deaths of a UPS driver who was kidnapped and a witness who got caught in the middle of a 2019 shootout.

“Because of the volume of gunfire at this very busy intersection full of civilian drivers and pedestrians, we told the grand jury what these agencies found,” Broward State Attorney Harold F. Pryor said in a statement.

On June 6, the state attorney’s office said, a Broward County grand jury charged the four cops after hearing evidence for several months. They went to the Broward Main Jail and turned themselves in on Friday and Saturday.

Rodolfo Mirabal, 39, was charged with two counts of manslaughter with a firearm in the deaths of FBI agent Frank Ordoñez, 27, who was kidnapped, and Richard Cutshaw, 70, who was stuck in traffic at the time of the killing.

There was one count of killing with a firearm brought against Jose Mateo, 32; Richard Santiesteban, 33; and Leslie Lee, 57. All three were charged with Ordoñez’s death.

“One of the most important and dangerous choices a police officer can make is whether to use deadly force,” Pryor said. “We understand that these choices are often made in tough and uncertain situations.”

The four were let out of jail because the judge said so. If they are found guilty, they could spend up to 30 years in state jail, but if this is their first offense, they might get less time.

Records show that Mateo and Mirabal, two of the cops, were still working for Miami-Dade police. They were on the Priority Response Team when the shooting took place.

Records showed that Lee left in late 2021 and worked on the Special Response Team, and sources told the Miami Herald that this was true.

Before he was charged, Santiesteban was fired in June. It was his job to be a part of the Robbery Intervention Detail Unit.

“Even though it’s taken a long time, we think the grand jury was necessary to make sure the families of the victims and the community get answers,” Pryor said. “All of this was done to do what was right.” The charge speaks for itself, and if we have anything else to say, we will do so through the court system, as is our custom.

A hail of bullets
In December 2019, there was a jewelry theft that turned into a high-speed police chase. At a busy intersection, more than a dozen police officers from at least three agencies got into a huge shootout.

In the beginning, Lamar Alexander and Ronnie Jerome Hill stole a UPS truck in Coral Gables. Ordoñez, a UPS driver and father of two, was still inside when the police chase began on the highway.

At the end, there was a gunfight at the crossing of Miramar Parkway and Flamingo Road, which was full of cars. On top of Ordoñez and the two accused thieves, a 70-year-old local union worker named Rick Cutshaw was also shot and killed.

The death of Ordoñez has still not been easy for his family. Joe Merino, his dad, told the Herald that they want someone to be at fault the most.

“We have asked for that for four and a half years,” Merino said. It’s just fairness.

Source: Miami Herald