MIAMI (WSVN) - Local leaders, fellow officers and members of the community they serve are all showing their support as they pray for a detective who was critically injured in a shootout with a robbery suspect.
“I know his heart,” said Miami-Dade Police Director Alfredo Ramirez of MDPD detective Cesar Echaverry. “I know as a father, what it means to see a young man like that injured in that fashion in such a violent way.”
Echaverry is now fighting for his life inside Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center.
Since Monday night, emotions for law enforcement have been running high outside.
The 29-year-old member of the Robbery Intervention Detail was shot after a confrontation with an armed robbery suspect.
A day after the shooting, Ramirez said the entire department is now holding its collective breath.
“He’s with his parents right now, he’s with his fiancée, he’s with his sister and with his law enforcement family,” he said.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava praised the five-year veteran of the force for putting his safety second in the confrontation that left a suspect dead.
“We also owe a special thanks to the brave men and women right here at Jackson Health System for the incredible care they’re providing to Echy,” she said, “and our top priority is to continue to support his family in this impossibly difficult time.”
One man paused outside the hospital to hope for the best.
“You know, to pray for the guy, you know, who is protecting us,” he said.
It’s the one request made by county leaders: prayer.
“I call upon our entire community to uplift him and his family, in your prayers as well as the entire police department and public safety community,” said Levine Cava.
“And all I can ask for is for all of us to pray together, and we will get through this together,” said Ramirez. “All I want to see right now is his smile, Echy’s smile.”
The police director said there will be a long road ahead for the detective.
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