Miami-Dade police chief shot himself in the head after fight with wife at Tampa hotel
Miami-Dade County’s police director was in stable condition after shooting himself in the head on the side of a Florida highway Sunday night following an apparent domestic dispute that forced his departure from a Tampa hotel where he and his wife were attending a law enforcement convention, according to multiple police sources and reports.
Alfredo “Freddy” Ramirez, a Democratic candidate for sheriff in the 2024 election, was recovering after surgery at a Tampa hospital, according to an internal Miami-Dade Police email and multiple law enforcement sources.
Ramirez, 52, suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head off I-75 south of Tampa, according to accounts by law enforcement agencies, including the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, Tampa police and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The gunshot happened not long after Ramirez had been involved in what was described as a heated argument with his wife Jody at a Tampa hotel and was asked to leave by hotel staff, the sheriff’s office and other sources said.
Tampa Police, in a statement, said officers had been called to the JW Marriott Water Street because of a report about a man pointing a gun at himself outside the hotel, where a Florida Sheriffs Association conference was being held. They said by the time officers arrived, Ramirez and his wife were back in their 12th floor room and denied he had displayed a weapon or that he intended to harm himself or anyone else.
Just hours later, multiple sources told The Herald, Ramirez pulled over on the drive back to Miami and shot himself — a turn of events that shocked people who knew and worked with a highly regarded commander who rose through the ranks during a three-decade career.
“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.”
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.”
What happened before Ramirez shot himself?
Multiple sources said after the incident at the hotel but before the shooting, Ramirez had 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 on a 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,” Levine Cava said in a Twitter post.
On Monday afternoon, Levine Cava named an interim director for the county police department, Stephanie Daniels, who was a senior administrator under Ramirez. J.D. Patterson, a former police director, will resume his role as chief safety officer under Levine Cava, a post Ramirez assumed in 2022 along with the full-time position of police director under a reorganization by the mayor.
Miami-Dade Police released a brief statement late Monday that said Ramirez had undergone 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. The department also declined to answer questions, issuing a statement on social media, “Out of respect for his close friends and family, we ask for privacy at this difficult time.”
According to a number of attendees of the Florida Sheriffs Association’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. Police did not verify that and Ramirez’s wife could not be reached for comment.
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 room. Police 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.
He also said there were reports going around at the conference that Ramirez might have placed his gun inside his own mouth at some point, which a senior law enforcement source also told CBS4, the Herald’s news partner. Tampa police did not comment on those reports.
“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 sheriff of Wicomico County.
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.”
Not long after Ramirez and his wife left the Marriott and headed back to Miami, 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 at his head and the bullet exited through an eye. His wife Jody, multiple sources said, was in the car but it wasn’t clear Ramirez had 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.”
At an afternoon press conference, Mark Glass, director of Florida Department of Law Enforcement said the incident occurred at Mile Marker 244 on I-75, a place known as the Big Bend, which is near Apollo Beach. He said the sequence of events began when Tampa police went to the convention hotel for a “possible domestic dispute involving Director Ramirez.”
“Today is a tragic day in Florida,” Glass said.
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 former Republican who joined Democratic Party earlier this year, announced in May he was running in the Democratic primary 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.
Bradenton Herald Staff Writer Ryan Ballogg reported from Tampa.
