Before he shot himself, Miami-Dade’s police director offered to resign, mayor says

Before he shot himself with his own gun on Sunday night, Miami-Dade County’s police director offered to resign in a call with Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, where he described a reported altercation with his wife, the mayor confirmed Wednesday.

“He was very remorseful. I reassured him we would talk,” Levine Cava said in a press conference, her first since Alfredo (Freddy) Ramirez wounded himself critically after leaving a Tampa hotel with his wife, Jody. “He told me he was driving back to Miami.”

Levine Cava declined to reveal specifics about what Ramirez, a candidate for Miami-Dade sheriff, told her during their Sunday evening conversation, including his version of the events that drew Tampa police to his hotel room earlier that night. But she described Ramirez as anguished over what had happened.

“There was an incident at the hotel in Tampa,” she said, describing what he told her. “He had made mistakes, and he was remorseful.”

A source briefed on the conversation said Levine Cava did not accept the resignation. At the press conference, Levine Cava said she left the conversation with the two planning to speak Monday. “I reassured him we would talk, that I would call him in the morning,”

READ MORE: ‘He’s stable and he’s talking.’ Miami-Dade’s top cop said to be recovering after shooting

Ramirez, a senior deputy to Levine Cava and a candidate for county sheriff, remains in a Tampa hospital with what police described as a critical wound to the head caused when he shot himself Sunday night on the side of I-75 after the couple left a convention hotel following an interaction with Tampa police. Officers responded to the hotel after reports of a man holding a gun, a report that led them to Ramirez.

The source briefed on the call said Levine Cava and Ramirez spoke once on Sunday, around 8:30 p.m. after the mayor missed a call from him at 7:30 p.m.

Ramirez also placed a call to the campaign manager the two Democrats share, Christian Ulvert, Ulvert confirmed Wednesday.

Ulvert said he spoke with Ramirez three times between the incident at the hotel and the shooting on I-75. He said Ramirez called him to report he had a confrontation with his wife that wasn’t violent but was still likely to cause problems for him as a candidate.

“He said he got into a fight with his wife. He said it was non-physical,” Ulvert said. “He was very embarrassed. He said: ‘This is not like me.’ ”

Ulvert said Ramirez did not share details about the confrontation, and that Ulvert didn’t press for more information. “I told him let’s meet Monday morning to discuss what happened and build a plan from there,” Ulvert said. “He agreed we’d meet Monday morning.”

While they only spoke once, Levine Cava tried to get back in touch with Ramirez that evening. It’s not known why, but the county mayor placed calls and a text message to Ramirez in the timing leading up to what police said was his self-inflicted gunshot wound. The calls and text message did not generate responses, the source said.

Hours after Ramirez’s self-inflicted wound, Levine Cava was at the Tampa hospital where he was being treated, having flown there on a county rescue helicopter. She landed in Tampa around 2:30 a.m., the source said.

Levine Cava held the 11 a.m. Wednesday press conference at County Hall to discuss Ramirez’s condition, and to formally introduce the people taking his positions on an interim basis: Stephanie Daniels, as head of Miami-Dade police, and J.D. Patterson, as chief safety officer, a post Ramirez also held, which placed him in charge of the county’s Fire Rescue Department as well.

“I’m very glad to report he is in stable condition after under going surgery on Monday,” Levine Cava said. “Every day he is recovering he is continuing to regain his strength.”

She also emphasized the mental-health hazards of law enforcement.

“This incident is also a tragic reminder of the critical role that mental health plays in our law enforcement officers,” she said during the County Hall press conference, flanked uniformed county police administrators and commanders. “The reality is that these jobs are very demanding, they’re stressful and they’re emotionally taxing.”