SOUTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) - It’s been a somber few days as several Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office deputies visited the memorial site of Deputy Devin Jaramillo to mourn his life, days after he was fatally shot in Southwest Miami-Dade.
7News cameras captured about a dozen of Jaramillo’s brothers and sisters in blue lining up in front of the growing memorial, leaving flowers and American flags in the very spot where, investigators said, the 27-year-old was shot and killed on Friday afternoon.
“Officers and first responders never forget. It tapers off, and you deal with life and you function, but you never forget it,” said J.C. Prellezo, a retired MDSO deputy.
“He was a son. He was a brother, but he’s also a homegrown hero. Nothing but the best of words were ever used when it came to describing who he was,” said MDSO Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz on Saturday.
Seeing the memorial hit especially hard for Lionel and Alma Espinoza, retired Miami-Dade officers who know Jaramillo’s family.
“It’s incredible,” Lionel said about the touching tribute. “It’s just terrible. To lose such a young gentleman, a young deputy, I mean, he had his whole life ahead of him.”
“It has killed me the way that this young man has lost his life the way he lost it,” said Alma. “Such a young man, a wonderful young man.”
Residents also passed by to pay their respects.
“He was an officer. He was keeping us all safe, and for this to happen in just really hard,” said area resident Cristina Falconi.
On Monday, MDSO parked his patrol car at the agency’s Kendall station, located at 7707 SW 117th Ave., so the public could visit and pay their respects.
“This is so sad and my prayers to the family,” said a woman.
“I work down the street and it’s awful. It’s very sad,” said a man. “It affects us man. It’s heartbreaking.”
According to officials, Jaramillo was shot and killed while responding to a traffic crash near Southwest 128th Street and 122nd Avenue.
“He encountered the subject who was part of the traffic crash case. There was a verbal dispute that ensued,” said Cordero-Stutz.
Cordero-Stutz was visibly shaken as she provided new details into the fatal shooting and identified the shooter as 21-year-old Steven Rustrian.
Deputies said Jaramillo and Rustrian began fighting after the deputy responded to the scene of the crash involving the suspect.
“And during that fight, he disarmed our deputy of his own service weapon and used it to shoot him multiple times,” said Cordero-Stutz. “The subject, after shooting our deputy, entered his own vehicle and took his own life.”
Despite the medical team’s best efforts at HCA Florida Kendall Hospital, Jaramillo succumbed to his injuries.
The sudden and senseless shooting has left many in the community trying to understand why it happened.
“He just attacked him,” said Alma. “It’s just why. That’s the big question, why?”
“You go out and you put your badge on. You’re hoping every day you come back,” said Lionel. “Unfortunately, he paid the ultimate price, he paid by his life. Too young.”
On Saturday morning, Jaramillo’s body, in a casket draped with the American flag, was wheeled into a Miami funeral home as he was flanked by fellow law enforcement officers.
As the memorial for that fallen deputy continues to grow, Cordero-Stutz called on the community to pray for the fallen deputy who loved them deeply and protected them fiercely.
“This will never be OK, and I ask our community to continue to hold us in your prayers, because we need them,” she said.
“This is very difficult for all of us. Not just for me, for the family, for the friends who know him, everyone,” said Lionel.
Tributes for the fallen deputy continue to pour in from local, state and federal officials, as well as other law enforcement agencies.
Officials have not released any funeral service details for Jaramillo.
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