Days after four Miami-Dade Police officers were indicted for a 2019 police-involved shooting that left four people dead, including a UPS driver, 7News has confirmed the identity of one of these officers.
According to 7News sources, one of the indicted officers is recently fired MDPD officer Richard Santiesteban.
Citing sources, The Miami Herald said the three other officers are Leslie Lee, Jose Mateo and Rodolfo Mirabal.
The intense rush-hour shootout unfolded on the busy intersection of Miramar Parkway and Flamingo Road on Dec. 5, 2019
When the gunfire exchange ended, UPS driver Frank Ordoñez, a father of two, was dead. He was 27 years old.
Speaking with 7News earlier this week, Frank Ordoñez’s family members reacted to the officers’ indictment.
“Think about our family and how much we’ve suffered these past four years,” said Genevie Merino, Ordoñez’s sister.
The shootout also claimed the life of 70-year-old Rick Cutshaw, an innocent bystander, as well as robbery suspects Lamar Alexander and Ronnie Jerome Hill.
Lee, Mateo, Mirabal and Santiesteban are all expected to turn themselves in next week.
7News has also learned that this exclusively obtained dashboard camera video from the day of the fatal shooting came from a personal camera belonging to Santiesteban. It was inside the police vehicle he drove that day.
7News sources said Santiesteban was seen in the dashcam video emerging from the cruiser, before hundreds of bullets were heard fired on Miramar Parkway.
It’s unclear whether or not Santiesteban fired any of the shots.
Santiesteban has found himself on the other side of the law before.
He was arrested in February of 2020, nearly three months after the shootout, following a confrontation with his wife at the time that was captured on surveillance video.
According to the police report, Santiesteban was arrested for “domestic assault/battery” and “robbery by sudden snatching.”
These charges were later dropped.
The shootout, which garnered headlines around the country, started with a botched robbery at a jewelry store in Coral Gables that led Alexander and Hill to hijack the UPS truck that Ordoñez was driving. A high-speed interstate pursuit would end in the deadly gun battle.
The officers’ indictment came after a grand jury investigation.
Officials with the Broward State Attorney’s Office and Miami-Dade Police are not commenting at this time.
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