‘No Faith In the Judicial System’: Florida Judge Uses Stand Your Ground to Clear Cops Who Killed Two Innocent Bystanders After Firing More Than 200 Rounds in Less Than 25 Seconds
A Florida judge this week cleared three Miami-Dade cops of manslaughter in the death of two innocent bystanders, including a UPS driver whose truck was hijacked by a pair of armed robbers, claiming the cops had the right to defend themselves under the state’s controversial stand your ground law.
But Judge Ernest Albert Kollra Jr. justified his decision by claiming the cops were firing back at the suspects who had “shot and hit multiple victims, civilian and law enforcement” in a crowded intersection during rush hour.
However, the evidence that has been made public shows the four people shot and killed during the shootout, including the two suspects and two innocent bystanders, were killed by police, who fired more than 200 rounds in less than 25 seconds.
A fifth victim who survived was shot by a ricocheted bullet fired by one of the suspects inside the jewelry store about an hour before the final shootout, which was more than 20 miles away in a separate county.
No other victims were shot at the intersection, according to court records and media reports — despite claims made by the judge.
The Broward County State Attorney’s Office said it plans to appeal the decision.
Ordonez, 27, was the UPS driver who was on the job when the two armed men hijacked his truck, leading police on a wild police chase through two counties that lasted an hour, coming to an end only when the suspects got stuck in rush hour traffic.
Cutshaw, 70, a union representative, was in his car, stuck in traffic, when he was shot in the back of the head by a bullet fired by police.
Video recorded by citizens inside a car shows Cutshaw’s car striking their car after being shot.
“They shot and killed that guy,” said the man in Spanish who was driving the car that had been struck by Cutshaw’s car.
Watch the chaotic video below.
‘No Faith in the Judicial System’
The shooting took place on Dec. 5, 2019, after two armed suspects, Lamar Alexander and Ronnie Jerome Hill, robbed a jewelry store in Coral Gables, a municipality in Miami-Dade County.
Court records state the suspects ordered employees and customers to the ground as they robbed the store of diamonds and cash. Video shows Hill fired a round into the floor, which ricocheted and struck a female employee in the head, court records state.
As the suspects left the store with the loot, the store’s two owners pulled out their own guns and started firing at the suspects, with three bullets striking Hill, injuring him in the arm. Multiple rounds struck the rented U-Haul they were using as a getaway vehicle.
The suspects abandoned the U-Haul a few blocks away and hijacked the UPS truck driven by Ordonez, prompting a one-hour pursuit with multiple law enforcement agencies that ended up in Broward County, which is just north of Miami-Dade.
Various video clips show dozens of cars surrounding the UPS truck that struck several pedestrians crossing the street or walking on the sidewalk when the shooting started, prompting citizens to run for cover or cower in their cars.
When the shooting ended less than a minute later, four people were dead, leading to the indictment of four Miami-Dade police officers; Jose Mateo, Richard Santiesteban, Leslie Lee and Rodolfo Mirabal on manslaughter charges.
Mateo was cleared by Judge Kollra in September after he was allowed to use the stand your ground defense. The other three cops were cleared this week by the same judge.
Kollra’s main argument, in his opinion, was that the cops had the right to fire hundreds of rounds in a crowded area in order to “prevent imminent death to himself or herself or another.”
“A person is justified in using or threatening to use deadly force if he or she reasonably believes that using or threatening to use such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony,” the judge wrote.
The fact that the cops ended up killing two innocent bystanders was a result of the armed suspects’ actions, the judge stated, laying the blame on them for the deaths of Ordonez and Cutshaw.
“There is no question that the defendant was responding to a threat initiated and continued by two armed convicted felons who shot and hit multiple victims, civilian and law enforcement and did not cease this mass shooting event until they were neutralized by the defendant, his fellow PRT team members and multiple other officers from the many agencies that responded,” the judge wrote in his opinion.
But the judge never indicated who the ” multiple victims ” were struck by the suspects.
The Broward State Attorney’s Office, which is already preparing an appeal in the Mateo case, said it would appeal the most recent decision as well, with one of its arguments being that the case should have been brought before a jury instead of being dismissed by a judge.
“Immunity from prosecution is not the same as a defense presented to a jury from this community,” the state attorney’s office said in a statement to the media.
“It is our belief that Stand Your Ground immunity does not apply in matters involving innocent bystanders, like Frank Ordonez and Richard Cutshaw, who presented no danger to officers.”
“In this incident, two innocent men were killed, and the lives of numerous other innocent bystanders were endangered,” the state attorney’s statement said.
Ordonez’s family members were also disappointed in the recent ruling.
“There’s no faith in the judicial system,” Ordonez’s stepfather, Joe Merino, told WSVN.
“Frank’s never gonna get any type of justice that he deserves, and that’s disappointing.”