Lawyers for the UPS driver killed during a shootout with police last year in Miramar after he was taken hostage and forced to drive on a multi-county chase have filed a lawsuit against a half dozen law enforcement agencies.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in Broward County by the estate of Frank Ordonez, names both the Miami-Dade Police Department and Broward Sheriff’s Office as defendants as well as the Florida Highway Patrol and police departments from the cities of Doral, Miramar and Pembroke Pines.
“We hope the Defendant-Police Departments will release copies of their Body Worn Camera Footage and patrol car radio transmissions,” lawyers Adam Finkel and Michael Haggard said in a statement. “The…families - and the public - have the right to know what happened, and how law enforcement reacted on this tragic day. “
Another man, Carlos Lara, was also named as a plaintiff in the suit.
Ordonez was the driver of a hijacked UPS truck that began with an armed robbery and shootout at a jewelry shop in Coral Gables on December 5th and ended in a hail of gunfire that left four people dead in Miramar.
Authorities began a pursuit of the UPS truck, which sped up Interstate 75 into nearby Broward County.
After exiting, the truck made its way through Pembroke Pines and Miramar with dozens of officers in pursuit. Officials said the suspects fired at officers while trying to evade authorities.
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When the truck stopped in traffic at a light near Miramar Parkway and Flamingo Road, the suspects opened fire on officers, which resulted in an exchange of gunfire between law enforcement and the suspects, George Piro of the FBI said in a news conference after the incident.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement confirmed that 20 officers from four different agencies were involved in the shootout, saying that three officers from the Miramar Police Department, one Pembroke Pines officer, one Florida Highway Patrol officer and 15 officers from the Miami-Dade Police Department were involved in the shootout.
Investigators have yet to release who fired the fatal shots that killed the 27-year-old Ordonez and Richard Cutshaw, a 70-year-old who was driving home from his job and was killed in the crossfire.
