A list of the Miami-Dade Police Department officer shootings over the last 7 months
Miami-Dade Police Department Director Freddy Ramirez said Wednesday from he’s tired of his officers being shot, noting Wednesday’s shooting is the fourth one in the last seven months. Three involved on-duty incidents and the other was domestic-related.
Here are the shootings to which Ramirez was referring:
Aug. 15, 2022
The officer: Robbery Intervention Detail Detective Cesar Echaverry, the first Miami-Dade police officer to be killed in the line of duty since 2011.
What police say happened: At Northwest 62nd Street and 17th Avenue, detectives found a car used in an armed robbery. The driver escaped, bashing through detectives cars while doing so, then crashed into another car 10 blocks east, at Northwest Seventh Avenue. In the shootout “Echy” and suspect Jeremy Horton of Acworth, Georgia, were hit. Horton was dead, Echaverry was rushed to Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital. He died two days later.
Echaverry was 29 and had been with Miami-Dade police five years.
READ MORE: “Echy” Echaverry dies two days after being shot
Nov. 5, 2022
The officer: Damian Colon, a 17-year member of the department.
What police say happened: Ex-girlfriend Yessenia Sanchez tracked Colon using GPS on his car and shot Colon in the back of the head in Hialeah. Colon is still recovering. Sanchez is still in Miami-Dade Corrections custody, not granted bond after being charged with first-degree attempted murder and misdemeanor stalking. She has pleaded not guilty.
READ MORE: Off-duty Miami-Dade cop shot in Hialeah
Dec. 6, 2022
The officer: Unnamed.
What police say happened: A Robbery Intervention Detail detective found a Volkswagen Jetta around Northwest 200th Street and 57th Avenue that police believed was used in a carjacking. As the detective followed the Volkswagen, Gabriel Gongora fired back at the detective and hit him in the face. Gongora would be arrested and remains in county jail with no bond, charged with attempted first degree murder of a police officer, two counts of criminal mischief and two counts of firing a gun from a vehicle.
READ MORE: Miramar man jailed in the shooting of a Miami-Dade police detective
March 7, 2023
The officer: Dorian Washington
What police say happened: A narcotics detective making an arrest in the area of Northwest 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue, in the Buena Vista West area just east of Interstate 95, was ambushed from behind and shot. The shooter grazed the officer’s head. After being taken to Ryder Trauma Center, the officer was released later Wednesday night. A suspect, Miramar’s Steve Gallon IV, son of the Miami-Dade County Public Schools board member Steve Gallon, was arrested Thursday morning.
READ MORE: Officer ambushed during stop in Miami neighborhood, police say
