FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Testimony resumed Tuesday in a hearing over the deadly UPS shootout on Miramar Parkway. Officers who were in the sky and on the ground during the 2019 chase took the stand.
It was the second week of testimony in a hearing where a now-suspended Jose Mateo is trying to convince a judge he fired his weapon in self-defense while serving as an officer with what was then the Miami-Dade Police Department.
Mateo hopes that under the “stand your ground” statute, a judge will dismiss his manslaughter charge after two innocent victims were shot and killed following the deadly pursuit on Dec. 5, 2019.
Hector Rodriguez, the pilot in command with what is now the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, took the stand Tuesday.
He described the radio transmission from dispatchers that day advising units to stay back from the UPS truck with armed men Ronnie Hill and Lamar Alexander, and hostage Frank Ordonez.
Rodriguez described the situation as “fluid.”
A prosecutor asked, “Is that a word that is actually in any of your pursuit policies or defined at all as fluid?”
“No sir, I don’t believe so,” Rodriguez replied.
The word “fluid” also described what MDSO Detective Brian Young faced as he approached the delivery truck in his marked unit. His body camera video showed him driving with one hand and holding his gun in the other.
“(A suspect) who has previously shot at officers. Yeah, I am going to have my gun in my hand,” Young testified.
Shots rang out as Young pulled up next to the truck. He testified that he, too, came under fire and then returned fire as the UPS truck was surrounded by police.
“I believe four times,” Young said he fired. “I observed three muzzle flashes and I felt multiple rounds zip by me.”
During that testimony, it appeared the state was trying to show Young did not have a clear shot, raising the question of why he fired.
The defense argued he acted because he saw a silhouette and because he was being shot at.
The judge adjourned for the day, with testimony from more state witnesses expected to continue on Wednesday. The judge also said he will likely not rule from the bench and will take the case under advisement.
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