Florida Police Officers Indicted Over Shootout That Killed UPS Driver

In the Sunshine State, four law enforcement officials were recently indicted in the Fort Lauderdale Area in an ironic plot twist. The cops were charged with manslaughter in a 2019 action that resulted in the deaths of two people. In June, Rodolfo Mirabal, Jose Mateo, Richard Santiesteban, and Leslie Lee were indicted. In December 2019, a 27 year old UPS driver who had his vehicle hijacked and a 70 year old union employee were killed in the affair. None of the officers were charged for the deaths of the hijackers responsible for the ultimate altercation, though. Of the four men found guilty, two were still active employees of the Miami Dade police department. Another had retired and another had been terminated from the force. In Florida, manslaughter was defined as an unlawful killing with clear demonstrations of culpable negligence. A maximum sentence of 30 years behind bars is usually leveled in these cases, but since the cops are all first time offenders the likelihood that they will ultimately serve this length of time is not high. 

In New York, an off duty police officer was carjacked. In an article reported by the New York Daily News on June 15th, two criminals armed with firearms, an automatic weapon and a semiautomatic weapon were arrested after they assaulted a cop by possessing his vehicle. This occurred in Harlem. A cop was entering his vehicle, described as a white BMW when the incident occurred. Two men, aged 20 and 21, held the man at gunpoint before taking the car. The cop had left an iPad in his car, though, and luckily the cops who were responding to the call were able to track the vehicle using the iPad. They found the car abandoned. Eventually the two perpetrators were found and arrested. Ultimately crime in America continues to be a major issue for many people heading into the closely contested 2024 general election cycle.