More than 20 officers may have opened fire in a busy South Florida intersection during a shootout between police and two delivery-truck hijackers earlier this month that left four dead, according to preliminary findings from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
The preliminary findings were presented by an FDLE agent to the Miami-Dade Community Relations Board’s Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement Committee Wednesday morning.
According to the agent, 21 officers may have opened fire and 195 bullet casings were recovered from the scene of the Dec. 5 shooting in Miramar.
“We have recovered thus far thousands of hours of video so you can imagine the mammoth task that is to review every single video and to ensure we don’t miss anything," the FDLE's Troy Walker said.
The incident began when a UPS truck was hijacked by two cousins who had robbed a Coral Gables jewelry store, and the two led police on a wild rush hour chase into Broward County. The two suspects, Lamar Alexander and Ronnie Jerome Hill, along with the UPS truck's driver, Frank Ordonez, were killed in the shootout, along with Richard Cutshaw, a motorist who was in the area.
Authorities are still investigating the shooting. Walker said the autopsy reports for Ordonez and Cutshaw have been completed and will help determine whose gunfire killed them.
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“I spoke with the families about the autopsies but I did not provide them the details because I think it would be premature on my part to share speculative information as opposed to facts," Walker said.
NBC 6 has also learned that some of the officers who opened fire were part of Miami-Dade Police's Priority Response Team. The group was formed in the wake of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to better respond to active shooter situations.
