The four Miami-Dade police officers indicted after a shootout that killed a UPS truck driver who had been carjacked and a bystander stuck in traffic were all members of elite specialized units.
Sources identified the officers as Leslie Lee, Jose Mateo, Rodolfo Mirabal and Richard Santiesteban.
It remains unclear what charges prosecutors presented to the grand jury during the confidential indictment proceeding. Attorneys representing the men haven’t responded to the Miami Herald’s inquiries as of Thursday evening.
READ MORE: Miami-Dade officers indicted in shootout that killed UPS driver, bystander in Broward
The raging gun battle, involving more than a dozen police officers from at least three agencies and captured live by television news choppers, occurred on Dec. 5, 2019, at a packed intersection at Miramar Parkway and Flamingo Road.
Earlier that day, two men had pulled off a jewelry heist in Coral Gables and hijacked a UPS truck. That sequence of events ignited a high-speed interstate chase — and ended in the gunfight that killed two innocent men as well as robbery suspects Lamar Alexander and Ronnie Jerome Hill.
Frank Ordoñez, a UPS driver and 27-year-old father of two, and Rick Cutshaw, a 70-year-old local union worker, were fatally struck by the hail of bullets.
Steadman Stahl, the head of the South Florida Police Benevolent Association, questioned how investigators were able to pick the four officers out from many others who allegedly fired their weapons that day. He also questioned the decision-making inside the Broward State Attorney’s Office, which is prosecuting the officers.
The robbers were “active shooters at the jewelry store. They’re active shooters as they go down the highway shooting at cars and police officers. They’re active shooters at the intersection. At no point do they stop,” Stahl said. “It certainly wasn’t the intention of the officers [to harm any innocent people]. But that’s what we’re trained to do — go after active shooters. What do you do as a police officer now in Broward?”
For years, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and Broward State Attorney’s Office remained tight-lipped about the case. The FDLE completed its investigation in 2021, turning over its findings to prosecutors. The court process, however, will shed light on what occurred that day.
Who are the indicted officers?
The four officers, according to sources, are expected to turn themselves in to authorities next week. Personnel records indicate that only two of them — Mateo and Mirabal — remain on the force.
At the time of the shootout, Mateo and Mirabal were part of the Priority Response Team, which was created to respond to emergency situations across the county after the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.
Lee, who sources say worked on the SWAT-like Special Response Team, retired at the end of 2021, according to records.
Santiesteban, the fourth officer, was fired in June — prior to the indictment. He was a member of the Robbery Intervention Detail Unit, which focuses on undercover work to capture people suspected of crimes.
Details are murky pertaining to why Santiesteban, 33, was fired, though Miami-Dade civil court records show that his ex-wife accused him of domestic violence. In a petition filed in 2020, Santiesteban’s ex alleged that he used his role as a police officer to harass her and that he threatened to harm her with his gun.
The temporary injunction, sought by the officer’s ex-wife, was dismissed in 2022.
Many questions, few answers
Every day, Ordoñez’s family has relived the trauma of losing him, stepfather Joe Merino told the Miami Herald. His sister, now 20, is still grappling with his death. His daughters, who were 4 and 5 at the time of the shootout, are just starting to understand what happened to their father.
“Every year, there’s another reminder of the police’s negligence,” he said.
Despite the indictment, Merino and Lucy Apolinario, Ordoñez’s mother, remain skeptical. They said they see the light at the end of the tunnel, though justice is still out of reach.
READ MORE: After 3 years, families still don’t know who killed loved ones during UPS hijack shootout
Frustrated by the lack of answers, the family in 2020 filed a wrongful death lawsuit against six law enforcement agencies. Broward Circuit Judge Keathan Frink dismissed the suit after determining that police couldn’t be held liable because of sovereign immunity, a tenet dating back to English common law that largely prevents governments from being sued.
For Merino, all the family has been seeking is to see someone held accountable for Ordoñez’s death.
“That’s what we’ve been asking for four-and-a-half years,” Merino said. “Only justice.”
Televised havoc during rush hour
The events leading up to the shooting began to unfold when Alexander and Hill, dressed as couriers, walked into Regents Jewelers at 386 Miracle Mile in Coral Gables. They both had high-powered weapons — and fired them almost immediately, injuring an employee.
After a brief gunfight, the men jumped into a truck with tens of thousands of dollars in cash and jewelry. They ditched the vehicle at Southwest Eighth Street and carjacked Ordoñez, who was making a routine delivery in his UPS truck.
Moments later, police began to pursue the truck, following it along Interstate 75. Sources told the Herald that Miami-Dade police officers attempted to pass the UPS truck to cut if off while on the highway — but backed off when the robbery suspects shot at them.
Officers then returned fire.
When the truck got stuck at the Miramar intersection, the chaos — broadcast on live television — mirrored a scene out of the wild west. Officers shot toward the UPS truck, ducking down for safety behind rush-hour commuters’ vehicles.
When the gunfire ceased, Hill and Alexander, who exchanged more than 200 rounds with officers, were dead. Ordoñez and Cutshaw had been shot to death, too.
Authorities have not said who fired the fatal bullets.
