Miami

Police release 911 call from hotel gun incident before Miami-Dade Police director shot himself – NBC 6 South Florida


Police have released the 911 call from the alleged gun incident involving Miami-Dade Police Director Alfredo “Freddy” Ramirez that happened shortly before he shot himself in an apparent suicide attempt.

Tampa Police released the 911 call Thursday that was made by a security staffer at a Marriott after a man, believed to be Ramirez, was spotted with a gun on Sunday.

“The front desk, they’re telling me there’s a guy with a gun in our front drive,” the staffer tells the 911 operator.

The 911 operator asks for a description of the man but the security guard isn’t able to provide one.

“I’ve got somebody who is supposedly in the front drive with a gun,” the security worker says again. “Guests that were walking from the outside into the hotel said that there’s a man in the drive with a gun.”

Ramirez had been attending the Florida Sheriff’s Association’s annual summer conference at the hotel on Sunday when he had been involved in some sort of domestic dispute with his wife, authorities said.

According to Tampa Police, officers had responded to the report of a man with a gun outside the hotel and were given third-hand information alleging a man had pointed a gun at himself, but there were no first-hand witnesses or security camera footage capturing the alleged incident.

Police said officers found Ramirez in a 12th-floor room with a woman who Ramirez said he’d been involved in an argument with.



Miami-Dade Police Director Freddy Ramirez offered to resign before he shot himself. NBC6’s Niko Clemmons reports

Ramirez said he had not displayed a firearm and had no intention to harm himself or others, police said. The woman corroborated that they had an argument and that she did not have any concerns about her safety being in danger, police said.

Since there was no evidence of a crime or immediate danger, Ramirez was released at the scene, police said.

Ramirez left the hotel and was driving somewhere along I-75 in the Riverview neighborhood, toward the southern end of Hillsborough County, when he pulled over and shot himself, officials said.

Ramirez, 52, was rushed to a Tampa-area hospital and underwent surgery Monday. Miami-Dade Police said he was in stable condition.

At a news conference Wednesday, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said she spoke with Ramirez over the phone after the hotel incident but before he shot himself.

“Freddy told me he had made a mistake, that he was prepared to resign,” Levine Cava said. “He was very remorseful and I reassured him we would talk the following morning.”

Levine Cava said Ramirez remained hospitalized but was “alert, awake and responsive” Wednesday. She said she’s optimistic he’ll continue to recover.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Florida Highway Patrol have launched a joint investigation into the incident.



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