MIAMI _ In the hours since a high-speed chase took police across Miami-Dade and into Broward County and ended with a barrage of bullets and four people dead in Miramar on Thursday evening, Florida politicians, law enforcement officials and the family members of one victim have started to ask: Was a less violent outcome possible?
Genny Merino, the sister of UPS driver Frank Ordonez, who was taken hostage and died in the shootout, said in a post on Twitter early Friday morning that the police handled the situation poorly.
"Today I lost my brother, because of the (expletive) negligence and stupidity of the police," she wrote. "Instead of negotiating with a hostage situation they just shot everyone."
During the chase's violent finale on Miramar Parkway, a cluster of cars stopped in peak rush-hour traffic became shields for police. Officers ran and ducked around pedestrians, who witnessed over 100 rounds of gunfire that looked like small bursts of light and smoke in the daylight.
At the end, 20 officers descended on three men lying next to the UPS truck that had been hijacked by two armed robbery suspects in Coral Gables, where the driver of the truck was taken hostage. Large smears of blood were visible on the roadway as police, and soon paramedics, rushed in to help the wounded.
Four people were killed, including the two suspects _ Miami-Dade County men Lamar Alexander and Ronnie Hill _ as well as 27-year-old Ordonez and a bystander, Richard Cutshaw, a 70-year-old Pembroke Pines resident and union representative who was sitting in his car nearby.
Joe Merino, Ordonez's stepfather, teetered from sorrow to anger in front of his home in northwest Hialeah on Friday as he recalled the shock of learning of his son's kidnapping and then of his death.
Merino said officers showed no regard for his son's life in the gunfight and wondered why they didn't try to de-escalate the situation by bringing in a SWAT team and setting up a hostage negotiation.
"It was like the Old West," Merino said, demanding accountability from all involved. "I'm going to be the voice for my son. This is not going to be swept under the rug."
When news of the carjacking first broke, one of Ordonez's brothers immediately called their mother concerned that it might be Frank. When his mother called Merino, he doubted it. He knew Ordonez was on a delivery route elsewhere after recently being promoted from loading trucks to filling in for drivers when they took time off.
"I said, 'Honey, don't worry about it because he's in Coconut Grove,'" Merino told the Miami Herald. "He drives a 24-footer in Coconut Grove, and this is in Coral Gables and it's a P-500, which is a small-size truck."
Minutes later, the son called again. To his horror, he recognized his brother on the television screen, crawling out of the carjacked UPS truck before he died in the gunfight.
The five or six officers from the Miramar and Pembroke Pines police departments who opened fire are on administrative leave, per department policies, Broward County Police Benevolent Association President Rod Skirvin said Friday. Eleven Miami-Dade officers also opened fire and have been placed on leave.
The FBI, which is leading the investigation into the incident, has offered little information about what happened, including whether Ordonez was killed by police bullets or exactly how Cutshaw was struck.
But some experts are already questioning whether police handled the situation appropriately.
Nelson Quintana, a retired Coral Gables police officer and SWAT member, said police officers should have tried to stop the UPS truck while it was on the highway, away from clogged city streets, using what is known as a "pursuit intervention technique" _ nudging the vehicle so it spins out of control and stops.
The hostage in the truck complicated efforts to force the vehicle to stop, but a "pit" maneuver would have been a good approach, Quintana said.
"That way you immobilize the risk of collateral damage to innocent civilians and the commanders on the scene can set themselves up," he said.
A veteran Miami-Dade officer with years of tactical training, who requested anonymity because he is still on the force, said officers should not have approached the vehicle.
"They knew there was a hostage in there," he said. "It was a busy intersection and it was 5 p.m. in the evening. If there's any kind of danger to the public, don't do it."
Miami-Dade Police Director Juan Perez on Friday defended his officers' actions, saying they "tried the best they could and showed incredible courage" in the firefight with _ even though a hostage and bystander wound up dead in the crossfire.
"We as an agency mourn the loss of these two innocent victims," Perez said. "We're obviously sympathetic with the family members. It's heart-breaking for us."
Perez insisted that the suspected robbers, Alexander and Hill, were to blame.
The two men were both released from state prison in 2017. Alexander was convicted of an armed robbery in Lee County in 2008, and was released in 2017, according to corrections records. Hill most recently finished a year prison sentence for a series of burglaries, state records show.
"The people responsible for this incident were the two brazen robbers who went into the jewelry store in the middle of the afternoon, guns blazing," Perez said.
Perez said officers tried to slow down and stop the UPS truck on the Turnpike and Interstate 75, away from the traffic gridlock, but "the officers were met with gunfire," he said. He added that "a couple" civilian vehicles were also struck during the chase.
When the truck finally stopped _ hemmed in by rush-hour traffic _ officers had no choice but to rush in an attempt to get between the robbers and the other commuters, Perez said.
"They didn't want a situation where (the robbers) bailed out and ran into a CVS, or a local shopping center, or even worse, started shooting at people at that intersection," Perez said. "It was a very difficult situation they were facing. They tried the best they could and showed incredible courage."
Perez said the investigation has yet to determine whether the bullets that killed the innocent victims came from the robbers or police.
"The medical examiners will hopefully be able to determine that," he said.
Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez told reporters Friday that the FBI investigation will sort out the details of the fatal shootings and the police decisions surrounding them. Miami-Dade is the only county government in Florida without a separate sheriff's office, meaning Gimenez oversees the department.
"We look forward to the investigation to see what exactly happened," he said at an event in Homestead, according to a video provided by his office. "If there are any changes that have to be made, we'll make them, obviously, with Miami-Dade Police."
Gimenez added that the incident never would have happened "if it had not been for the two perpetrators that abducted that young man and led police on this chase that ended in these tragic events."
He noted that Miami-Dade policy requires an outside investigation, state or federal, whenever a county officer is involved in a shooting.
Thursday's shootout set off a public debate about the right way for law enforcement to handle a dangerous, high-stakes pursuit.
The Florida Highway Patrol's policy about pursuits mentions the word "firearm" just once, recommending that law enforcement not shoot from or at a moving vehicle except as a last resort.
"Firearms may be used only under circumstances that provide a high probability of striking the intended objective and without causing harm to innocent persons," the policy reads.
Police chases have grown deadlier in the last five years, according to an analysis of federal records by the nonprofit news organization FairWarning. In 2017, 416 people were killed in police chases nationwide _ the fourth year in a row where the number of people killed in these pursuits increased.
According to a 2017 analysis by the Miami-Dade Police Department, pursuits in the county are 63% more likely than the national average to end in crashes and 100% more likely to end in injuries.
State Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez, a Democrat who represents Coral Gables, where yesterday's police chase began following a jewelry store heist, said he's reserving judgment until learning more information.
But he said he's concerned about what he's learned so far, particularly as it relates to video that appears to show officers taking cover behind occupied vehicles.
"Unless we learn a series of facts that is materially different from what the public has seen and been told, it does appear that something, or a series of things, went wrong," Rodriguez said, calling for a "full investigation of this at every level."
Rodriguez said there may be reason for a policy review at the state level, depending on how the facts ultimately play out.
"It is premature, but I think a lot of us are open to taking steps to prevent something from happening in the future if there's a role for the state," Rodriguez said.
Sen. Jason Pizzo, a former Miami-Dade prosecutor, also questioned whether there could have been another outcome to avoid a shootout on a busy street at rush hour.
"I realize patrol cars aren't bulletproof, but it's brazen to use occupied vehicles for cover in an active shooting," he said.
Miramar Mayor and one-time presidential candidate Wayne Messam also posted a statement on Twitter Thursday night, calling the shooting unprecedented.
His goal now, he said, is to "get our city back on track" and "console our community."
Police say the incident began at 4:17 p.m. EST in Coral Gables, when two armed men, later discovered to be Alexander and Hill, tried robbing Regent Jewelers at 386 Miracle Mile. They were buzzed into the store because they were posing as U.S. postal workers, a law enforcement source said.
One of the men fired into the floor and the bullet ricocheted, hitting a female employee of the store in the forehead, a law enforcement source told the Herald. She survived with a minor wound.
As the men left the store, gunfire broke out between the Alexander and Hill and the owner of the store. At least one bullet was fired toward Coral Gables City Hall, across the street.
Billy Urquia, the Coral Gables city clerk, was in his office when he heard two gunshots, and then the sound of a bullet hitting his window.
"The bullet ricocheted off the wall and landed on the floor," Urquia said Thursday night. "The last one I heard was the one that came in."
Urquia said he left the office to find a city security guard already on the phone with police. He estimated the bullet missed him by a few feet. A photo taken afterward shows the bullet hole looming over Urquia's computer monitor, just below the window blinds.
Soon afterward, Alexander and Hill carjacked a UPS truck with the driver, Ordonez, inside.
Police officers found the UPS truck, which led police on a harrowing chase up Florida's Turnpike, onto Okeechobee Road and then onto Interstate 75 into Broward County. The robbers shot at police during the chase, the FBI said.
The truck exited in Pembroke Pines, breaking through a traffic arm into the Century Village community and speeding through rush-hour traffic, followed by a long stream of police cars and helicopters.
When the truck finally stopped in traffic gridlock, the robbers appeared to open fire on police.
After the shooting, paramedics rushed to treat the injured men. At least one person was airlifted to a trauma center.
Broward County Police Benevolent Association President Rod Skirvin said Friday that the Miramar and Pembroke Pines officers who opened fire Thursday took "the action that they felt appropriate to end the threat."
Skirvin said he, along with everyone else, is waiting for all the facts to come out.
"Any time our officers are involved in a shooting that results in the loss of life, it is a lifelong traumatic event for them," he said.
