Alfredo “Freddy” Ramirez, director of the Miami-Dade Police Department, was driving with his wife on Sunday from a law enforcement conference in Tampa when he pulled over along Interstate 75 and shot himself in the head.
Ramirez is expected to recover and was in “critical but stable condition” after undergoing surgery at Tampa General Hospital. A source said Ramirez might lose vision in one eye.
An investigation into the shooting is ongoing. Reportedly, Ramirez and his wife, Jody, had gotten into a heated argument outside the conference. The altercation was so intense that someone called the police. According to law enforcement, a passerby claimed to have seen Ramirez “take out his gun and put it in his mouth.”
The passerby who called the police did so anonymously. However, both Freddy and Jody Ramirez denied that he threatened to kill himself. So Tampa police declined to arrest Ramirez or invoke the state's Baker Act, which would involuntarily commit him to a mental health facility for 72 hours. That’s standard procedure if police have evidence that someone is a threat to themselves and others.
“There wasn't enough evidence to do anything,” a source claimed.
The police should have ample evidence to use the Baker Act now. How else do they explain someone pulling over to the side of the road and shooting himself in the head? He probably didn’t trip. We don’t know the specifics of the couple’s argument at the Tampa hotel, but it’s not unusual for someone to threaten suicide as a form of emotional abuse against their partner.
Tampa police stated in a news release they’d spoken with the couple on the 12th floor of the hotel at 6:50 p.m. Sunday.
“After additional questioning, Ramirez stated he had no intention to harm himself or others,” the news release stated. “The known female corroborated that they had an argument and that she did not have any concerns about her safety being in danger.”
Ramirez claimed he didn’t pull out his gun, but in the dispatch recording, an officer is heard saying, “I got a male 10-0 with a gun in front of the building.” A 10-0 means that someone is armed and the responding officer should take caution. If you’re a 12-year-old with a toy gun, that can prove lethal, but the police apparently had a calm conversation with Ramirez, who survived the encounter.
Ramirez, a Democrat, was running for sheriff next year alongside Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava. His apparent suicide attempt obviously complicates those plans.
Mayor Cava revealed at a news conference Wednesday that Ramirez had offered to resign his current position not long before shooting himself.
“Freddy told me he had made a mistake, he was prepared to resign and I told him we would talk about it the next day,” she said, adding that Ramirez was “very remorseful” during their conversation.
Ramirez had worked in the Miami-Dade police department for 27 years and led the largest law enforcement agency in the southeastern US. The newly created sheriff role is essentially the same one he has now, and he boasted considerable name recognition and regular TV exposure. The race was considered his to lose. Publicly, representatives from both parties have wished Ramirez well and refrained from openly speculating about the political impact of his self-inflicted injuries.
But privately, talk among potential sheriff contenders and campaign consultants has turned to who Democrats might back instead and how Republicans can capitalize on a reset race. “The circumstances are tragic and horrible,” said David Custin, a Republican political consultant. “Republicans are emboldened.”
Yeah, that doesn’t surprise us. Republicans are vultures. However, we do think it’s probably best if Ramirez follows through on his resignation.
[Associated Press / CBS News / Miami-Herald]
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Allowing emotions to overwhelm, putting the barrel of a firearm in your mouth or otherwise in proximity to your skull and pulling the damned trigger is precisely what SHOULD command the application of the Baker Act.
Bastardizing legal semantics in order to allow SOME people to retain possession of deadly weapon is another depraved manifestation of this high-caliber psychosis gripping too damned many Americans. This is arrogant, equivocating madness that too often ends in more horrific shootings and deaths.
It's the fucking guns, America.
In my fire service career, my fellow members are not dying at fires, active shooters, or working accidents on freeways. It's suicide or being a anti-vaxxer because of a fluorescent lamp in your anus and Chlorox are clinically shown to be bullshit. I've lost 6 friends in 26 years due to suicide and 2 to Covid-19.
It was irresponsible on Miami-Dade PD to not treat this officer under the same rules that would apply to suicidal individuals. The bullet doesn't give a fuck if you got a shiny gold badge.