Stand Your Ground hearing underway in fatal 2019 Miramar UPS shootout case
A Stand Your Ground hearing is underway in Broward County this week for three former Miami-Dade police officers whose actions during a deadly 2019 shootout near Miramar Parkway left a hijacked UPS driver and an innocent motorist dead.
With four people dead, the incident proved to be one of the deadliest days for Miramar, when the city became the violent endpoint of one of South Florida’s most-disturbing televised police chases.
Now, officers charged in the killing of UPS driver Frank Ordonez, 27, and bystander, Richard Cutshaw, 70, are asking a judge to allow them to use Florida’s Stand Your Ground law to avoid trial in the deaths.
Florida’s Stand Your Ground statute allows individuals — including law enforcement officers — to avoid prosecution if they can demonstrate they reasonably feared imminent death or great bodily harm and acted in self-defense. That is the purpose of this week’s hearing.
Defense attorneys argue the officers believed the armed suspects fired first and posed an immediate threat and that their use of force was justified.
Already, one Miami-Dade officer, Jose Mateo, convinced a judge to grant him immunity under the same grounds.
But prosecutors counter that Stand Your Ground protections should not apply when innocent bystanders are killed and argue the officers’ actions created unnecessary and deadly risk.
The officers — Rodolfo Mirabal, Richard Santisteban and Leslie Lee — were among dozens of law enforcement officers from multiple jurisdictions who pursued the UPS truck hijacked earlier that day in Coral Gables by two armed jewelry store robbers.
The fleeing suspects had taken Ordonez hostage and fled north into Broward County, with the high-speed chase being broadcast live on television across South Florida.
The pursuit ended when the hijacked truck rolled to a stop in traffic near the intersection of Miramar Parkway and Flamingo Road.
What followed was a chaotic police shootout in the middle of rush-hour traffic. More than 200 rounds were fired as officers opened fire on the suspects around motorists in traffic as the suspects fired back.
Ordonez was fatally shot as he attempted to escape from the cab of the truck, as viewers watched. Cutshaw, who was sitting in his car nearby, was also killed.
Both robbery suspects also died at the scene.
The incident drew national attention and sparked widespread criticism over police tactics, particularly the decision to engage in a shootout with civilians trapped in traffic.
The pursuit and gunfire were broadcast live, with television cameras capturing the dramatic and deadly final moments before pulling away as the shooting intensified.
In 2021, Broward prosecutors charged four Miami-Dade police officers with manslaughter, alleging their actions were reckless and contributed to the deaths of Ordonez and Cutshaw.
The judge’s ruling on whether Stand Your Ground immunity applies could determine whether the criminal case proceeds to trial or ends before reaching a jury.
The hearing is expected to last all week.
