In a tragic drama that played out in Florida, a Miami-Dade police officer was shot by his former girlfriend, a former Miami-Dade Schools police officer, in a “domestic-related incident” in the early hours of Nov. 4.
The shooting took place at a home in the 1200-block of West 79th Street in the Hialeah area according to CBS News.
Police sources told the Miami Herald that 32-year-old Yessenia Sanchez, a former Miami-Dade Schools police officer, drove to Hialeah to confront her ex-boyfriend, identified by the herald as Miami-Dade police officer Damian Colon who was at home and off-duty.
Hialeah Police Sgt. Jose Torres confirmed a suspect was in custody. Colon, whom Miami-Dade Police Director Alfredo “Freddy” Ramirez did not refer to by name was alive, and out of surgery having suffered a “gunshot wound to the head.”
Sgt. Torres told CBS News “The officer is in extremely critical condition. This is very sad. This is a very sad morning. This is a domestic violence incident. It is isolated and again the shooter is in custody.”
“[The officer is] currently out of surgery and has moved over to a room. His family is with him and our thoughts and prayers are with him. Everything is very delicate and sensitive right now, He is in critical condition, He is still with us. Let’s ride that positivity and we ask that the community will come together with that positivity and that will help us get through it. It has been difficult but this is what we do. We move forward,” Ramirez said.
Ramirez added that he knew the officer very well and described him as a family man with children.
#NEW Just spoke to police who have confirmed an off duty MDPD officer was shot by his “estranged” girlfriend. They add the shooter is also a former Miami-Dade School Board Police officer who was terminated from the department @nbc6 pic.twitter.com/3iO1YawrBJ
— Chernéy Amhara (@CherneyAmharaTV) November 4, 2022
Torres said Sanchez had been arrested a year ago on prior domestic violence charges against her ex-boyfriend.
“We are all praying as a community and we’re hopeful that this will come out well. So we ask the whole community to join us in prayers and hope,” said Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.
Colon was airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center with a gunshot to the head and he remains in critical condition, according to the Miami-Dade Police Department.
