2 arrested in murder of ex-cop
Man shot several times while sleeping
SUNRISE — Two people have been arrested and charged in the murder of a former police officer in Sunrise earlier this month.
The former Miami-Dade officer, Johnnie Ridgeway III, 51, was found dead in his Sunrise home Nov. 12 after being shot several times, Sunrise police said.
On Sunday, Michael Elliot Colon was arrested and charged with one count of premeditated murder.
He was living in the home with his aunt, Sonia Ridgeway, who is also Johnnie Ridgeway’s wife. Colon helped orchestrate the murder and enlisted his daughter as the driver for the crime, police say. She is also charged in the murder, but police are not identifying her because of her age.
Ridgeway’s body was found in the 5800 block of Northwest 12th Court, Sunrise police said. He was shot several times between 7 a.m. and noon. The investigation revealed he was killed while he was sleeping in his bed.
Sonia Ridgeway called 911 around 2:35 p.m. and said she had discovered her husband’s body. Neither she nor Colon was at the home during the homicide, to the police report.
Witnesses told police that Colon’s daughter often visited the home in a white car. During the investigation, a neighbor said they saw someone who looked male standing next to a white car and then approach the home while wearing gloves. Another neighbor identified him as the daughter’s boyfriend.
On Nov. 12, a neighbor’s security camera captured a white Kia Optima pulling into the driveway next to the home, making a threepoint-turn and then parking on a swale, the report said. An “unknown male” wearing a light-colored hoodie and pants got out the front passenger side.
He walked to the front of the house, came back to the car to get something, walked to the house again and went inside. He then ran from the house and got in the car, which fled the scene, the report said.
On Nov. 24, the daughter agreed to speak to detectives, the report said.
She told them she borrowed the white Kia Optima from an unidentified person, picked up one of the suspects, and drove from according
Homestead to Ridgeway’s house in Sunrise around 6 a.m., the report said.
She said she was nervous “about what was going to happen” and circled the block a couple times. Then she parked in a grass swale next to the house, according to the report.
She told detectives the person in the car with her got out and walked up to the house, but then came back to get a pair of latex gloves from the passenger seat. Then he went inside the house and shot Ridgeway as he “slept in his bed.” Then the person ran out of the house, got in the car and they drove away, the report said.
The girl recalled how she heard what she thought were three to four gunshots, and that she was upset because she thought he would shoot Ridgeway only once, according to the report.
She admitted to driving the suspect to the house with knowledge that he intended to kill Ridgeway. Her statements corroborated videos from security cameras in the area and the eyewitness statements, the report said.
She told detectives the plan to murder Ridgeway was constructed by her father, Colon, and his friend, who is not identified in the report. The initial plan was to use a Nissan rental car, but that fell through when the car was towed from where she was living, the report said.
Instead, she borrowed the white Kia from her friend and former co-worker, the report said.
She called Colon around 8:30 a.m. that morning, and he asked her whether the third suspect had killed Ridgeway yet, the report said.
According to the report, the phone evidence, video evidence and corroborating statements from witnesses show that Colon planned the murder of Ridgeway due to “bad blood between [redacted] and [Colon].”
Both suspects were taken into custody and charged with firstdegree premeditated murder. Colon is being held without bond.
Detectives are still searching for one more suspect in the case, but said there is no concern for public safety at this time.
Miami-Dade police confirmed Ridgeway was a former officer who was hired Sept. 11, 1995, and terminated on Jan. 10, 1999.
Ridgeway was indicted by a federal grand jury on Oct. 9, 1998, for allegedly sexually assaulting a female driver and subjecting five other women to sexual taunts on separate occasions while they were in custody in 1997.
According to the indictment, the last incident occurred Dec. 11, 1997, the same day he was suspended with pay, according to police records.
Miami-Dade Internal Affairs investigators, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and the FBI listed four other incidents during early-morning traffic stops in spring 1997 when Ridgeway allegedly detained the unidentified women for “the purpose of sexual gratification.”
He was facing six counts of civil-rights violations. Five were dismissed.
Ridgeway was found guilty of one civil-rights violation and was sentenced to two years in prison, followed by three years probation, according to federal court records.
Now, investigators are asking anyone with information about his murder and the other suspect to contact the Sunrise Police Department at 954-764-4357.