Miami cops plead not guilty after being arrested over UPS hijacking shootout that killed innocent bystanders
Less than 10 Florida law enforcement officers have been charged in on-duty killings in last four decades
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Four current and former Miami-Dade police officers involved in a dramatic 2019 chase and shootout that left four people dead are facing manslaughter charges this week in Florida court, a rarity in a state in which only one officers has been convicted for an on-duty killing in the last 40 years.
Rodolfo Mirabal, Richard Santiesteban, Jose Mateo and Leslie Lee were among the 20 different officers across several different agencies who were part of a December 5, 2019, shootout with a pair of jewel thieves who hijacked a UPS truck with its driver inside and then got stuck in a busy intersection in Miramar.
Officers and the two alleged thieves, 41-year-old cousins Lamar Alexander and Ronnie Jerome Hill, exchanged some 200 rounds before the firefight was over. When the dust settled, Alexander, Hill, UPS driver Frank Ordoñez, 27, and bystander Rick Cutshaw, 70, were dead.
All four officers, who were charged last month, have pleaded not guilty.
“These are trained, good police officers that are now having to defend their actions on protecting the people,” South Florida Police Benevolent Association President Steadman Stahl told Florida news station Local 10 on Monday. “Those officers didn’t pick that location to have the shootout in. It’s the bad guys. They could’ve stopped it at any time.”
A trial date is set for February.
Prosecutor Chuck Morton indicated that the government plans to turn over about 6,000 pages of evidence.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement and Broward State Attorney’s Office investigated the shooting, with the FDLE handing its recommendations to prosecutors in 2021.
Mateo and Mirabal remain on the Miami-Dade police force, while Lee has retired, and Santiesteban was fired in June, prior to the group’s indictment over the shooting, according to The Miami Herald.
Ordoñez’s stepfather Joe Merino told the paper he’s closely following the case.
“That’s what we’ve been asking for 4 1/2 years,” he said. “Only justice.”