The family of a UPS driver killed in a hail of bullets last December after his truck was hijacked by jewelry store robbers, has filed suit against the multiple law enforcement agencies involved in the shootout on a busy Florida highway — broadcast live on local television, Law & Crime reports.
Frank Ordonez, 27, was on his first day doing deliveries alone — and was covering a coworker’s shift — when the two robbers abducted him and fled in his truck. After a 25-mile chase, in the middle of rush hour traffic, the UPS truck slowed to a stop on Miramar Parkway, as CrimeOnline previously reported.
As television news cameras broadcast live from helicopters, police approached, using stopped vehicles as shields, and gunfire erupted. When it was all over, the two suspects were dead, along with Ordonez, a recently divorced father of two, and Richard Cutshaw, an innocent bystander inside a car caught up in the madness.
The 34-page complaint, filed Monday in Broward County, names as defendants the Miami-Dade Police Department, the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, the Florida Highway Patrol, and the police departments of Miramar, Doral, and Pembroke Pines.
Attorneys Adam Finkel and Michael Haggard filed the lawsuit on behalf of Ordonez’s family and Carlos Lara, another innocent bystander hit by bullets during the shootout but survived.
DEVELOPING: Miramar police confirm multiple fatalities in this officer involved shooting after a UPS truck was stolen. This was crazy to watch live, viewer discretion advised. pic.twitter.com/lU2Ah1Q9I5
— Shayne Wright (@swrightwpbf) December 5, 2019
“As result of the Defendant’s negligent implementation of its policies, the chances of resolving the hostage scenario, and rescuing Frank Ordonez alive, was eliminated,” the lawsuit says.
As for Lara, the lawsuit says that he “suffered bodily injury resulting in pain and suffering, disability, disfigurement, mental anguish, aggravation of a preexisting condition(s), loss of the capacity for the enjoyment of life, expenses of hospitalization, medical and nursing care and treatment, and loss of earnings.”
“The Ordonez and Lara families – and the public – have the right to know what happened, and how law enforcement reacted on this tragic day,” Finkel and Haggard said in a statement. “It is in the best interest of this very emotional case for the Ordonez and Lara families that no further comment beyond this statement is given at this time. As more evidence is released, the families and our attorneys will grant interviews. What happened that day should never have occurred.”
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[Featured image: Frank Ordonez/Facebook]
