The bullets that killed a UPS truck driver and a bystander during a shootout between Miami-Dade police officers and the driver’s two kidnappers all trace back to police, not the kidnappers, according to a newly released Florida Department of Law Enforcement report.
Four Miami-Dade police officers were indicted in connection with the shooting in June, over four years after it took place in Miramar on Dec. 5, 2019.
A medical examiner found five bullets inside of Frank Ordonez, the UPS driver and hardworking father of two young girls, the report says. All came from four different police officers. Meanwhile, Richard Cutshaw, a 70-year-old union representative who was in a nearby car, was found with one bullet, also from one of the four police officers.
The two kidnappers also died. The bullet found in Ronnie Jerome Hill came from the owner of a jewelry store. The report does not say who killed Lamar Alexander, the other kidnapper.
The two men had attempted to rob a jewelry store on Miracle Mile in Coral Gables that day. The store was owned by Erik Diamond, who had shot Hill. Then, they hijacked Ordonez’s UPS truck and headed north on Florida’s Turnpike with him in tow.
As they crossed into Broward County, they stopped at the intersection of Miramar Parkway and Flamingo Road due to traffic congestion, the report says. There, they were met with as many as 20 law enforcement officers from six South Florida agencies. A shootout ensued, killing Ordonez, Cutshaw, Alexander and Hill. No police officers were injured. The UPS truck was covered in dozens of bullet holes, as were multiple other cars nearby.
In the days following, Ordonez’s family demanded answers from the police.
“He was murdered,” Joe Merino, Ordonez’s stepfather, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel at the time. “… Those officers that created the chaos went home to their families, but Frank didn’t.”
Questions have long lingered about whether the police use of force went beyond what was necessary. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigated the shooting and turned its findings over to the Broward State Attorney’s Office in 2022. The report, released now due to the indictment, represents the first detailed look at the shootout and who was responsible for the deaths.
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