Miami police director shot himself after domestic dispute at Tampa hotel, police say
Miami-Dade County’s police director is in stable condition after shooting himself on the side of a Florida highway Sunday night following a dispute that forced his departure from a Tampa hotel where he was attending a law enforcement convention with his wife, according to multiple police sources and reports.
Alfredo “Freddy” Ramirez, a Democratic candidate for sheriff in the 2024 election, was recovering from surgery at a Tampa hospital after the gunshot wound, according to an internal Miami-Dade Police email and multiple law enforcement sources.
Ramirez, 52, suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head on I-75 just south of Tampa, according to a Monday afternoon statement by the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office. The gunshot wound came after Ramirez had been involved in a domestic dispute at a Tampa hotel with his wife Jody and was asked to leave by hotel staff, the sheriff’s office and other sources said.
Tampa Police said Ramirez was injured not long after they were called to the hotel where the couple were staying because a man had been pointing a gun at himself outside downtown’s JW Marriott Tampa Water Street Hotel. They said by the time they arrived, Ramirez and his wife were back in their 12th floor room and denied here had been a weapon.
“It’s stunning. I’ve had a lot of interactions with him the last few weeks because he’s been on the campaign trail,” said Miami-Dade’s elected public defender Carlos Martinez. “He’s always been a happy-go-lucky professional guy. It’s stunning when you see something that doesn’t fit with what you see on a daily basis.”
News of the incident shocked people who know and work with Ramirez, 52, a highly regarded commander who rose through Miami-Dade Police Department during his nearly three-decade career. Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, who last year made Ramirez a senior deputy overseeing both the police and fire rescue departments as chief of safety and emergency response, flew to Tampa overnight. So did Oliver Gilbert, the chair of the Miami-Dade County Commission. Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle called Ramirez her friend and the incident, “deeply saddening.”
Multiple sources said after the incident at the hotel with his wife and before the shooting, Ramirez contacted Levine Cava to discuss what happened. The director also reached out to Christian Ulvert, the campaign manager he shares with Levine Cava in the 2024 election cycle. Sources familiar with the conversations said Ramirez discussed how he would address what was likely to be an embarrassing situation as he embarked in his quest to become an elected senior member of the Levine Cava administration.
A spokesperson for Levine Cava confirmed that a conversation took place Sunday but declined to provide details or information on the timing of the phone call. Ulvert was not available for comment.
“All that matters right now is Chief Ramirez’s well-being, and I join his family, his loved ones and all his Miami-Dade Police Department and Miami-Dade family in praying for his swift recovery,” Levin Cava said in a Twitter post.
In a brief statement released late Monday, Miami-Dade Police said Ramirez was out of surgery and was in “stable” condition. An earlier internal MDPD email obtained by the Miami Herald said the Ramirez family thanked officers for calls, messages and prayers.
Through accounts from police, sources from several law enforcement agencies and family friends, It appears something as simple as a brief getaway for the couple to a sheriff’s convention that could help propel Ramirez to elected office, turned tragic and almost deadly on the side of a highway after a heated domestic incident.
According to a number of attendees of the Sheriff’s Summer Conference in Tampa, the largest yearly gathering of its kind in the state, Ramirez and his wife got into a heated exchange inside the Marriott some time around 6 p.m. Sunday, where the convention was taking place. At least three attendees said they were told Ramirez had his wife against a wall and his hands around his wife’s throat before the couple went outside.
Once the couple were outside, Tampa Police said, someone called saying there was a man pointing a gun at himself. But police said by the time they arrived, Freddy and Jody Ramirez were upstairs in their 12th floor. Police questioning them when they left the room said Freddy Ramirez admitted arguing, but denied displaying a firearm.
“There were no first-hand witnesses or security camera footage capturing the alleged incident,” Tampa Police said in a statement. And Jody Ramirez, they said, told them she had no concerns about her safety.
Michael Lewis, an elected sheriff from Maryland who attended the Florida event, said Monday he had heard that a “heated discussion” between Ramirez and his wife outside the hotel had drawn Tampa police to the event during a Sunday evening reception for attendees. Lewis did not witness any altercation. But, Lewis said, hotel staff at the Marriott asked the couple to leave.
“We’re completely shocked. I’ve been in law enforcement 39 years and I’ve never heard of anything like this remotely occurring,” said Lewis, the Wicomico County sheriff.
Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said he spoke with Ramirez and his wife on Sunday night and everything seemed fine.
“It’s a tragic situation,” the sheriff said. “I’m very concerned about him and his wife and I wish them the best in this tragic situation.”
Then, sometime after Ramirez and his wife left the Marriott and were headed back to Miami along I-75 south, they apparently got into another argument and Ramirez stopped the car and used a gun he had on his possession, on himself, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement released Monday morning.
Multiple law enforcement sources said Ramirez fired the weapon in his head area and the bullet exited through an eye. His wife Jody, they said, was in the car. It wasn’t clear if Ramirez shot himself in or out of the vehicle.
The Florida Highway Patrol, which is investigating the incident along with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, said in a statement Monday that “Director Ramirez suffered serious injuries and is hospitalized. No one else was injured. There is no threat to the community.” The FHP said the shooting took place along I-75 near the Big Bend near Apollo Beach.
Though police were asked to hold off from visiting the director because the hospital feared overflowing crowds, some close family friends drove to Tampa.
“Our prayers are with his family right now,” said Steadman Stahl, president of South Florida Police Benevolent Association told the Miami Herald early Monday morning. We don’t know exactly what happened.”
Ramirez, a Democrat, announced in May he was running for sheriff in 2024 to try to retain his role as the county’s top law enforcement official. He was named police director in 2020 under then-Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez.
He joined Miami-Dade police in 1995 and worked his way up from patrol duty to deputy director after working at the side of former Director Juan Perez, before he was named to the top post. He was raised by grandparents who fled the Fidel Castro regime and his parents in Hialeah, according to his biography in sheriff’s campaign literature.
In 2015, one of Ramirez’s predecessors, Robert Parker, had killed himself behind his North Miami-Dade home, six years after he retired. Parker, who also rose through the ranks, was the county’s first Black police director.
This story was originally published July 24, 2023 at 10:36 AM.
