FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — The director of the Miami-Dade Police Department was in stable condition after surgery in a Tampa area hospital, the Miami-Dade mayor said Monday, amid reports from local media that he had shot himself.
Alfredo “Freddy” Ramirez, 52, was in Tampa for a law enforcement conference, officials said.
“Following a critical injury in Tampa yesterday, Chief Ramirez is hospitalized and in critical but stable condition," said Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, adding that "that “All that matters right now is Chief Ramirez’s wellbeing.”
Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister told Tampa TV station WFLA that Ramirez shot himself Sunday night during a domestic dispute after stopping his car along Interstate 75 south of Tampa, where the sheriff’s conference was underway.
The Miami Herald and WPLG reported that Ramirez’s wife, Jody, was traveling with him at the time.
The Associated Press has not independently confirmed those accounts.
Ramirez oversees the largest police agency in the southeastern U.S.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement said it, along with the Florida Highway Patrol, is investigating the “incident.”
“We have been advised by local law enforcement agencies that our Director, Alfredo ‘Freddy’ Ramirez, has suffered a critical injury in the Tampa area," a statement from the Miami-Dade Police Department said. “We ask you to please keep him in your prayers.”
The state's law enforcement agency said no one else was injured and there is no threat to the community.
Details regarding Ramirez's injury or how it happened were not immediately confirmed by state or Miami officials.
“We will provide information as it becomes available,” the Miami-Dade Police Department statement said.
A spokeswoman for Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told The AP that the mayor traveled to Tampa after the shooting to “support Director Ramirez and his family.” She deferred all other inquiries to the state’s law enforcement investigating agency.
The Herald cited unnamed law enforcement sources who said Tampa police had engaged with Ramirez at the JW Marriott hotel, where the conference was being held, earlier on Sunday evening after a report of an altercation.
According to WPLG, Ramirez and his wife stepped outside the hotel around 6:30 p.m. Sunday and began arguing. A witness saw Ramirez put a gun in his mouth and called 911, the station reported. However, when Tampa police arrived, the couple denied the witness’s account, and the witness had left.
The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office referred questions about the hotel incident to Tampa police and did not immediately respond to questions about how Ramirez was injured. A Tampa Police Department spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the reported argument at a downtown hotel.
Ramirez is a 27-year veteran of the Miami-Dade police agency. In May, he announced his intention to seek election for the newly-created role of sheriff in 2024, signaling his desire to remain the leading law enforcement official.
