Miami-Dade police officers involved in a Miramar shootout are set to be arraigned
FORT LAUDERDALE - Three of the four Miami-Dade police officers indicted in a deadly shooting in Miramar are scheduled to be arraigned on Monday.
Jose Mateo, Richard Santiesteban, Rodofo Mirabal, and Leslie Lee are facing manslaughter charges in connection with a 2019 shootout on Miramar Parkway that left UPS driver Frank Ordonez, the two robbers who hijacked him and a nearby driver dead
The case is considered rare because it is not often that a grand jury indicts law enforcement officers.
Mateo, Santiesteban, and Mirabal are set to be formally arraigned on Monday. Lee's arraignment hearing was moved to July 31.
The tragedy began when 41-year-old cousins Lamar Alexander and Ronnie Jerome Hill robbed the Regent Jewelers store in Coral Gables. Police said shots were being fired inside the store when officers arrived, summoned by a silent alarm. A store worker was hit in the head by a ricocheting bullet.
The robbers fled into a nearby neighborhood and hijacked UPS driver Frank Ordonez, who was delivering packages.
They led officers from multiple agencies on a long chase into southern Broward during rush-hour traffic, running red lights and narrowly avoiding crashes.
A rear door of the UPS van was partly open, as well as the driver and passenger-side doors, enabling gunfire along the way. The van finally stopped in a middle lane on Miramar Parkway just west of Flamingo Road, caught behind a wall of vehicles waiting for the light to turn green.
Gunfire suddenly erupted as officers ran between cars toward the van. Ordonez, Alexander and Hill were killed inside the van. Richard Cutshaw was fatally struck by a stray bullet as he drove nearby.
Nearly 200 rounds were exchanged between 21 officers and Alexander and Hill.
Investigators have not said if Ordonez and Cutshaw were shot by police, the robbers or both.
The four officers charged face a maximum sentence of 30 years if convicted, though that is an unlikely scenario since this is their first offense.
