Four Miami-Dade police officers have been indicted by a grand jury in connection with a fatal 2019 shootout involving police and two men who had hijacked a UPS truck, the Police Benevolent Association confirmed to Local 10 News Monday.
Two of the four officers indicted were identified by authorities as Leslie Lee and Richard Santiesteban. The identities of the other two officers have not yet been released.
It was Dec. 5, 2019, when two armed robbers, Lamar Alexander, and Ronnie Jerome Hill, both then 41, robbed a jewelry store in Coral Gables before leading police on a 25-mile chase after they hijacked a UPS truck with driver Frank Ordonez in it.
“Long, long time I am waiting,” said Ordonez’s mother, Lucy Apolinario.
The truck went through multiple cities in Miami-Dade County, eventually ending up in Miramar. It became trapped at an intersection with people driving home from work at rush hour.
A total of 20 police officers from four departments — Miami-Dade County, Pembroke Pines, Miramar and the Florida Highway Patrol — were involved in a shootout, as a preliminary investigation revealed that around 200 bullets struck the UPS truck.
Also killed was Richard Cutshaw, a man who was in his car, eight miles from his home in Pembroke Pines, driving from his union representative job in Miramar and stopped at a light. Cutshaw was caught in the crossfire.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) handed over its findings to the Broward State Attorney’s Office on Sept. 15, 2021.
It is still unclear what the nature of the charges against the officers will be.
The PBA shared a statement with Local 10 News that read, in part:
“We’re extremely disappointed that after almost five years, these officers are finding themselves indicted for something they had seconds to decide. The Broward State Attorney’s office is prosecuting officers for responding to armed subjects, where they just got done prosecuting an officer for not responding in Parkland.”
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