With their guns drawn, Tampa Police officers placed Miami-Dade Police Director Alfredo "Freddy" Ramirez in handcuffs on July 23rd in Tampa.
"You know I'm the director of the Miami Dade Police Department,” Ramirez told officers in new police body camera footage of the incident.
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Officers were also seen escorting his wife down the hallway.
"We're just having a conversation,” Jody Ramirez told them in the video.
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The tense moments played out inside a Marriott hotel after police said they received a call about a man threatening to kill himself with a gun. Ramirez and his wife told officers there was no reason to be concerned.
"He has a weapon because he's the director of the Miami-Dade Police Department and Chief of Public Safety,” Jody Ramirez said.
"I was just talking to my wife, I didn't do anything, please," Freddy Ramirez told the officers.
Tampa Police said they let Ramirez go because he did not meet criteria for a Baker Act, which is Florida's process for mental health examinations. Officers also couldn't find the person who allegedly saw the incident.
But a few hours later, when Ramirez and his wife were driving back to Miami, the director pulled over on the side of Interstate 75 and shot himself in an attempted suicide.
NBC6 spoke with former South Miami Police Capt. Michael D'Angelo to ask him if the body camera footage showed any red flags that were missed.
"Based on that interview and the time they took to evaluate him, they just didn't agree it met the criteria for Baker Act, and personally, his responses and his wife's responses, it did not meet that criteria,” D'Angelo said.
The incident report said a lieutenant with the Hillsborough County Sheriff later notified Tampa Police that their agency planned to place Ramirez under a Baker Act after speaking with witnesses. In an email, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office disputed that account, telling NBC6 their agency “did not investigate this incident” and at no point considered placing Ramirez under a Baker Act. The Tampa Police Department did not immediately respond to NBC6’s request for comment.
Officials with Miami-Dade Police said Thursday that Ramirez continues to recover at a Tampa hospital.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Florida Highway Patrol have launched a joint investigation into the incident.
EDITOR'S NOTE: NBC6 has updated this article to include information provided by the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.
