December 5. 2019

Frank Ordonez

Two armed men went on an audacious crime spree while robbing the Regent Jewelers jewelry store in Miami's pricey Miracle Mile shopping district in the city of Coral Gables. One of the robbers shot a female employee of the jewelry store. The robbers and the store owner exchanged gunfire during the heist. When they exited the jewelry store, the robbers fired shots at police. The robbers also fired shots that hit city hall across the street.

They first fled in a U-haul truck. Then in their attempt to make a getaway, the robbers spotted a UPS truck and its driver, Frank Ordonez. They took Ordonez hostage and commandeered the vehicle. The robbers forced Ordonez into a crouching position in the footwell area of the front passenger seat and began wildly driving around from Coral Gables all the way to the town of Mirimar in adjacent Broward County, which is a city a few minutes outside Miami. It was a 30-mile chase.

During the wild ride with police following a few vehicles behind them, traffic came to a standstill. The robbers panicked as they were hemmed in by other motorists, rendering them sitting ducks. Police got out of their vehicles and began slowly approaching the UPS truck on both sides.

Then an initial flash went off inside the UPS truck indicating a gunshot from within the vehicle. The FBI have since stated the robbers opened fire on police in traffic, who were on both sides of the vehicle and on foot. A video has been released of police getting people out of their vehicles and telling them to get down, while the robbers fired shots.

Police then returned fire, as they and pedestrians were being indiscriminately shot at by the robbers. This is when Ordonez tried to hop out of the vehicle. As he dove forward (conscious), enhanced video shows him being hit by a bullet on the left side of his back and him crumpling downward. It appears Ordonez was hit in the crossfire.

Seconds later, one of the gunmen who was clearly unconscious and looked dead, slowly tumbled out of the vehicle and landed on Ordonez. There was blood everywhere. You could see it pooling on the street, indicating exsanguination. A lady in traffic was also shot and killed. Ballistics tests will have to be done to determine who shot each individual.

This was a terrible and tragic incident. I was watching the news on CBS Channel 4 and the incident started off like many other police chases. However, within seconds it turned deadly. Channel 4 apologized for airing the footage live with no delay which would give time for editing, but many stations in Miami ended up in the same predicament, as it is highly unusual for a pursuit to turn into this. I've never seen anything like this before on the news.

The robbers were terrible to go on this awful, deadly crime spree. They were either insane, on drugs or both. They acted with complete recklessness. This was a senseless crime that never should have occurred. My condolences to the victims' families.