RELIVES DEATH OF ICON
on the steps. Another friend, Lazaro Quintana, gave chase but had to back off when the killer pointed his gun at him in an alleyway.
Noriega went on: “Versace was shot around 9am, I got there 9.15. He was alive, they were keeping him alive... he died in hospital.
“We created a dragnet. It was a frantic search. I believe we created a choke hold on the city so tight Cunanan felt extremely uncomfortable Cops storm boat where Cunanan shot himself after a four-hour siege Designer Gianni Versace was shot at his mansion moving around and we locked him in. We were doing vehicle stops, checkpoints, working with the FBI.
“I said to my guys from day one, I believe we’ve got him locked in. I don’t believe he’s going to get out.”
He didn’t, of course – choosing to kill himself rather than face justice. Noriega and a SWAT team
had traced him to a two-storey houseboat in northern Miami Beach. Police stormed the boat after a four-hour siege.
The cop recalled: “I walked up to the second floor and saw Cunanan on his back. He was wearing boxer shorts, no shirt, no shoes.
“He shot himself right in the head and the gun was lying next to him, the same gun that killed Versace. The same weapon that killed his other gunshot victims, a Taurus PT100 semi-automatic.
“How did I feel? A sense of relief. But we lost the ability to interview him to find out what happened.
“I always said this killing was the perfect storm for police. You had the celebrity, such a wonderful human being. The serial killer, on the FBI’S 10 Most Wanted, against the backdrop of Miami Beach.” Noriega went on to become Miami College pic of Cucanan, who killed Versace and four others Diana and Elton Beach police chief and now heads up the nearby North Bay Village police department. He said of the TV drama: “Parts bring back memories. And other parts I think, come on, that didn’t happen.
“Things like the person pressing a magazine into Versace’s blood on the steps. That’s simply not true.
“There’s a dead bird in the show. True. But it wasn’t a Mafia symbol. The bird was hit by a bullet ricochet. It was flying in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
One other thing haunts Noriega to this day... that Cunanan had been spotted earlier at a sandwich shop and managed to evade police.
Noriega added: “Patrol officers got there as quickly as possible but he was gone. That was weeks before the Versace murder. Imagine if we caught him then.”
scoops@sundaymirror.co.uk