Policing is a dangerous job. We hear that all the time, then tuck it away and move on. For the first time in years, South Florida got an awful reminder when a Hollywood police officer was killed in the line of duty.
Officer Yandy Chirino, 28, a Coral Park Senior High graduate, was killed Sunday night answering a call about a suspicious person trying to open car doors or rob homes on the 400 block of North Hills Drive. A fairly routine call, but something went terribly wrong. Chirino was shot and critically wounded.
Fellow officers at the scene placed him in a cruiser and rushed him to the hospital. Unfortunately, Chirino became the seventh Hollywood police officer to die while on duty in the department’s history.
An 18-year-old suspect with a long record, Jason Venegas, has been arrested. He faces first-degree murder charges.
Just after 2:15 p.m. Monday, scores of mourning officers from Chirino’s and nearby police departments stood at attention, crowded outside Memorial Regional Hospital. They escorted Chirino’s body in a fire rescue unit from the hospital, where he was pronounced dead, to the office of the Broward County medical examiner. Chirino first was driven past the Hollywood Police Department.
Chirino joined the department in 2017. He had family, friends and co-workers who loved him. He was named Officer of the Month in June 2020 and received five supervisor commendations during his short career.
Monday was a brutal day for the Hollywood Police Department. An unidentified lieutenant apparently committed suicide overnight in the parking lot of a Plantation mall.
Chirino was part of a dangerous — and embattled — profession. But he signed up, nevertheless, willing to put himself in the line of fire to keep the rest of us safe. For which we should be grateful.
———
