DORAL, Fla. – An incident report tells of Tampa police officers’ efforts to not just assess the situation between Alfredo “Freddy” Ramirez III and his wife last month at a Tampa hotel, but to also prevent him from leaving. Unfortunately, they said they could not.
The report details the police response to the hotel on June 23 where a witness reported that they saw Miami-Dade’s top cop threatening to take his life — hours before he shot himself in the head.
According to the report, the unidentified witness told hotel security that Ramirez “pulled out a firearm and put it to his head and stated he was going to ‘End it here.’”
When officers arrived at the 12th floor of the JW Marriott where Ramirez was staying, they said they heard “a verbal argument” from the hallway. Officers said they “made a line formation,” one officer held a ballistic shield, and ordered Ramirez and his wife to come out.
The first to exit was his wife Jody Ramirez. Police officers handcuffed Freddy Ramirez and asked his wife if she had seen him point a gun at himself. She replied, “I don’t remember” but then said “No, not at all.”
“We probably got a little loud inside. Sorry, 30 years married, I know what buttons to push, he knows what buttons to push, it is what it is,” Jody Ramirez said, according to the report, adding, “He has plenty of demons from the job, as you guys all are probably aware of.”
According to the report, police officers asked Freddy Ramirez “if he wanted to harm himself or others.” The report states that he told them he did not. They then asked if he had any suicidal thoughts, and again, he reportedly said he did not.
Investigators determined Freddy Ramirez “did not meet Baker Act criteria and (he) was released at the scene.”
The police chief would later pull over on Interstate 75, south of Tampa, and open fire on himself, in front of his wife.
Related records
Freddy Ramirez Incident Report Redacted by Andrea Torres on Scribd
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