Parents of Miami-Dade police Officer Cesar “Echy” Echaverry honor his legacy

MIAMI – It has been more than a year since South Florida said goodbye to 29-year-old Cesar “Echy” Echaverry, the Miami-Dade police officer who died in August 2022 after a shootout with an armed robbery suspect in Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood.

“I’m very proud of my brother, I’m very proud of what he chose to be,” said Echverry’s sister Sandra Virginia Echaverry.

She and her parents decided to commemorate the one-year anniversary of “Echy’s” death by traveling to their native Nicaragua, where he was buried, to hand out backpacks to low-income children.

“I decided to hand out ‘mochilas’ (backpacks) because my son always carried a backpack,” said Echaverry’s mother Sandra Echaverry.

She said that instead of including school supplies in the backpack, they contained a thermos just like “Echy” liked to carry.

They distributed 460 backpacks for children from Pre-K to 6th grade grade in Diri’a, Nicaragua, a town 35 kilometers from the capital.

According to Sandra Echaverry Sr. “written on the kids’ thermoses, a versus Echy loved – “I can do it all if Christ is with me.”

As far as “Echy’s” legacy, his father said that his son told him “It is my duty to make the world a safer place.”

CBS News Miami’s Ivan Taylor asked Sandra Virginia Echaverry (Echy’s sister) what do you say to the men and women who want to be police officers?

“Being a police officer is a calling, it’s more than a job, you have to have certain qualities to be able to protect others and I really think it’s an honorable job,” said Sandra Echaverry. “A lot of police officers do the job and we overlook what they actually do.”

Etchy’s parents said that from now on, on the day of their son’s birthday and his passing, they will be handing out backpacks to low-income children in Nicaragua, because that’s how they choose to celebrate their son’s life and his legacy.