Family Of Slain UPS Driver Blames Police

MIRAMAR, FL — The family of the UPS driver killed in Thursday night's shootout on a busy Florida highway is blaming police for the death of their loved one.

"This was police negligence," Joe Merino, the father-in-law of UPS driver Frank Ordonez, told WPLG-TV. Members of Ordonez's family identified the 27-year-old as the UPS driver killed on Miramar Parkway, east of Flamingo Road in Broward County. See also Police Shootout On Busy Highway Leaves 4 Dead

"It's on my mind all night, and I'm going to use that word: Murder. They murdered him," Merino told the television crew outside his Hialeah home. "In plain daylight rush hour, where was protocol? Where was SWAT? Where was the hostage negotiator? Where was the sniper?"

Ordonez was one of four people killed when police surrounded the hijacked UPS truck and opened fire following a wild police chase that began after an earlier armed robbery in the Miami suburb of Coral Gables more than 20 miles away.

A bystander and two robbery suspects in the truck with Ordonez were also killed when police opened fire. Police did not immediately say whether Ordonez and the bystander where killed by police or the suspects.

In a statement, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez said his heart goes out to the families of the innocent victims.

"None of this would've happened had it not been for the perpetrators who abducted that young man and led police on this chase that ended in tragedy," Gimenez said.

Miami-Dade Police Director Juan Perez also blamed the robbery suspects for the deaths of Ordonez and the bystander.

"They dictated this, not law enforcement," Perez insisted in an interview with WPLG-TV.

Perez said law enforcement officers came under fire "on numerous occasions" while trying to stop the hijacked UPS truck on the Florida Turnpike and on Interstate 75.

"There's vehicles from passersby on the turnpike that were struck by those bullets as well," Perez said.

At least two separate GoFundMe pages have been set up to help Ordonez's two young daughters, ages 3 and 5.

"Every step he took was for his daughters. He wanted to give them the best future and for them to never need anything from others. He wanted to be their provider," Ordonez's sister, Sara, said in one of the GoFundMe pages.

"He didn't deserve to die the way he did. He was just going to work to provide for his two little girls, which he loved so much, which are now left without a father," Roy Ordonez, Frank's brother, said in another GoFundMe.

"The police went home that night to their families, to their daughters and sons, to their wives," Merino added. "Frank is never coming back. He wasn't afforded that right … . They didn't protect him when he most needed it."