Miami officers honored for saving Miami Beach police officer
MIAMI - A group of seven Miami officers may be why a Miami Beach officer is still alive.
City of Miami officer Dominuse-Cain Dolce was one of the first at the scene. He saw a Miami Beach police officer with a gunshot wound in his leg restraining a suspect. He was accidentally shot by another officer during the struggle.
"We call them fatal funnels," Dolce said. "When you go down the fatal funnel, and you only have your partners with you, you only have your backup with you. It's important for us to be there for each other, which we were."
Dolce said every second counted, as the group helped put a tourniquet on the officer's leg, while securing the scene and getting the suspect in restrained before taking the officer to a hospital.
"I don't think anyone really exhaled until we got to the trauma center," Dolce said. "Because even in the car he's losing a tremendous amount of blood."
Miami police Chief Manny Morales says you don't see this kind of call very often.
"It's incredibly rare to be able to render first aid to one of your own that's been shot in a line of duty," Morales said. "I've been able to render first aid to folks that have been in horrific car crashes, I mean but these guys did man, and the composure they kept, whew."
The officer injured in the incident couldn't be at the ceremony, but Miami Beach police command staff thanked them for him. The Miami-Dade County Association of Chiefs of Police honored the entire group with the Officer of the Month Award.
Officer Dolce is just glad the entire group was recognized.
"I don't think there are enough awards because there were so many different people involved in this endeavor," Dolce said.