There will be more information coming, possibly between these words are written and the time it’s published. But there are two things that won’t change. A UPS driver, 27-year-old Frank Ordonez, and the as yet unidentified driver of a car stuck in traffic on Miramar Highway, won’t be coming home for dinner tonight.
Two armed men attempted to rob a Coral Gable jewelry store. Who they were is unknown. Why they decided that robbing a jewelry store was a good idea is similarly unknown. Contrary to the fantasy rationalizations of the unduly passionate, sometimes the reason is that there are bad dudes who do bad things for bad reasons. People are funny that way, and regardless of whom these two robbers turn out to be, what they did was tragically bad, for themselves and two other human beings who won’t make it home for dinner.
Coral Gables Police Chief Ed Hudak said two armed suspects exchanged gunfire with a jewelry shop worker, with some bullets hitting city hall across the street. Footage showed multiple police officers at the scene and several evidence markers on the ground.
Shortly after the shootout, the suspects abducted a UPS driver at gunpoint and fled in the driver’s truck. The driver had been making a delivery nearby, Hudak said.
Authorities began a pursuit of the UPS truck, which sped up Interstate 75 into South Florida’s Broward County.
The UPS truck eventually stopped on Miramar Highway due to traffic. Police surrounded the truck, using stopped cars as shields as the perps started firing. Then the cops started firing. Bullets don’t discriminate.
Piro confirmed that the two suspects died, as well as the UPS driver and a bystander who was shot where the chase ended in Miramar.
From the moment police decided to approach the truck, knowing there was a hostage inside, knowing the two robbers were armed and inclined to shoot, the outcome seemed obvious. No cop was killed. No cop was shot. The same can’t be said for the UPS driver, whose body was no more resistant to bullets than the two robbers’ bodies.
And then there’s the person in the car, stopped in traffic. It’s unclear whose bullet found its way into his body, police or perp, but it’s of little consequence as he’s dead either way for the misfortune of being on the road, stopped in traffic, when the police decided it was a good time to take out these robbers and other people’s cars would protect them from harm.
There will no doubt be further investigation, critique and promises of tactical training. There will be arguments and excuses. What else could the police do once the robbers started shooting at them?
All the cops will make it home for dinner. The First Rule of Policing was enforced. A UPS driver and a guy in a car stopped in traffic won’t make it home for dinner. There is no first rule of surviving the First Rule of Policing.