911 call reveals horrific moments on the night Miami-Dade police director shot himself
A 911 call from the side of I-75 captured the frantic pleas for help the night of July 23rd when Miami-Dade County’s police director pulled over his SUV with his wife, Jody, inside and shot himself in the head.
Alfredo “Freddy” Ramirez survived the wound, and remains in a Tampa hospital. The redacted version of the 911 call placed at 9:16 pm. to Hillsborough County Fire Rescue describes him running into traffic and resisting Jody Ramirez’s efforts to treat his wound from the side of the busy highway.
“I need your help, and I need it now,” the female voice said on the recording released Tuesday evening by Hillsborough County’s legal department in response to a records request from the Miami Herald.
Multiple sections of the call were redacted before release, leaving long beeps between the conversation between the Hillsborough County 911 operator and Jody Ramirez. The Miami Herald is not publishing the full 911 audio because of disturbing content.
The recording does not identify the speakers. The audio was provided as part of the Herald’s request for records related to Hillsborough’s response to Ramirez’s self-inflicted gunshot wound. The Ramirezes were driving south on their way back to Miami when Freddy Ramirez wounded himself with his gun.
The redactions leave the recording an incomplete picture of what happened when the Ramirezes ended up south of Tampa after leaving a police convention earlier that evening following what’s been described as an argument or altercation.
A few new details emerge
But the recording does offer new details, including that the gun Freddy Ramirez used to shoot himself was in the couple’s vehicle during the 911 call.
The audio also depicts Freddy Ramirez as upright and mobile at the start of the call, and putting himself in danger. It’s not known if he had already shot himself when the call began.
“He’s running into traffic,” the female voice said 90 seconds into the nearly seven-minute-long call. “Oh, my God.” The operator warned: “Don’t run after him.”
The call begins with the female voice speaking to someone else before the exchange with the operator begins. “Please,” she appeared to say in an anguished voice. “I love you.”
The recording is the latest glimpse into an evening that saw Freddy Ramirez, a Democratic candidate for Miami-Dade sheriff, in despair over a dispute with Jody Ramirez at the Tampa JW Marriott where they were attending a Florida Sheriffs Association convention.
Tampa police responded to the hotel around 6:30 p.m. after a report of a man with a gun outside, and officers made their way to the Ramirezes’ 12th-floor room shortly before 7 p.m. Freddy Ramirez denied displaying his firearm, according to a Tampa Police media release.
The officers let Miami-Dade’s senior law enforcement administrator go after Freddy Ramirez said he had no intentions of harming himself or his wife, and Jody Ramirez said she had no concerns about their safety. The couple left in Ramirez’s SUV and were driving back to Miami.
Calls to mayor, political adviser
The incident left Ramirez anguished about his political future and career. He placed a call to his campaign manager and to the county’s mayor, Daniella Levine Cava, who said Ramirez offered his resignation and was remorseful about what happened. Levine Cava later told reporters she tried to reassure Ramirez and ended the conversation. Later that evening, she had concerns about his well-being, according to text messages released by her office through a public-records request.
“I’m checking in,” Levine Cava texted shortly after 10 p.m. “I want to be sure you’re alright.”
At that point, ambulance and police were already on the scene of the Ramirez shooting. They were there about six minutes after the 911 call began.
“Oh, my God, help me please,” the female voice on the call said.
While the call does not reveal the exact sequence of events, the exchange suggests Ramirez was not fully incapacitated after the gunshot. When the 911 operator offers instructions on how to deal with a head wound until an ambulance crew arrives, he’s told the man doesn’t want the help.
“I need you to get a clean, dry cloth or towel or T-shirt or something so we can get it on the wound and control the bleeding,” the operator said. The woman responded: “He’s not letting me.”
The conversation appears to take place through a speaker system in the SUV. At one point, the female voice said she’s not sure where the phone was and that the man at this point was awake but “in the grass on the side of the road.”
The 911 operator asks about the location of the gun, and the female voice responded: “It’s here in the car, on the console.”
Near the end of the call, when the audio describes Freddy Ramirez resisting his wife’s attempt to stanch his bleeding, the operator said to walk away rather than risk being hurt.
“I want to make sure you stay safe,” the operator said.
“I am safe,” she responded. “He needs help.”
Miami Herald staff writer Charles Rabin contributed to this report.
