Family of Fla. UPS driver slain in shootout files suit
A FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA.— family is suing over the fatal December shooting of a Florida UPS driver who was taken hostage by two robbers and killed in a torrent of gunfire after he and the suspects got stuck in rush-hour traffic.
Attorneys representing the two young daughters of driver Frank Ordonez, who died in the Dec .5 nationally televised shootout, said in the lawsuit that officers acted negligently both during the long chase that preceded the gun battle and when they opened fire on a crowded suburban Fort Lauderdale street.
Attorneys Michael Haggard and Adam Finkel said the officers should have stopped the van in an uncrowded area, negotiated with the robbers before firing and not shot into the van while Ordonez was alive inside. They are also suing on behalf of Carlos Lara, who was wounded as he satin acar. A third man, 70-year-old Richard Cutshaw, was fatally struck by a stray bullet as he drove nearby. The two robbers also died.
The attorneys said a primary goal of the state lawsuit,
which is seeking unspecifiedmonetary damages, is to obtain police radio transmissionsand body camera video.
“The Ordonez and Lara families — and the public — have the right to know what happened, and how law enforcement reacted on this tragic day ,” Haggard and Fink el said in a statement, declining further comment.
The lawsuit is against six agencies: the Miami-Dade, D oral, Mi rama rand Pembroke Pines police departments, the Broward Sheriff’s Office and the Florida Highway Patrol. The Broward Sheriff’s Office
said Wednesday it was not involved in the shootout. The other agencies all declined comment, saying the shooting remains under investigation, or failed to respond to an email seeking comment.
The tragedy began when 41-year-old cousins Lamar Alexander and Ronnie Jerome Hill robbed the Regent Jewelers store in Coral Gables. Police said in December that shots were being fired inside the store when officers arrived, summoned by a silent alarm. A store worker was hit in the head by a ricocheting bullet, police said.