Florida UPS Truck Shootout

Submission 25,100

Overview

Florida UPS Truck Shootout refers to a deadly police shootout that took place on December 5th, 2019, in Miramar, Florida, and resulted in deaths of four people, including a UPS driver, who was held hostage, and a civilian bystander. Following the shootout, posts and memes criticizing the actions of the police and the statement released by UPS were posted on social media.

Background

On December 5th, 2019, at approximately 4 pm Lamar Alexander, 41, and Ronnie Jerome Hill, 41, robbed Regent Jeweler's jewelry store on Miracle Mile in Coral Gables, Florida.^[1] The robbers escaped the scene on a hijacked UPS van, holding the driver, 27-year-old Frank Ordonez, hostage. At approximately 5:35 pm, after a 25-mile police chase from the scene of the robbery, the robbers and the police officers from the Miami-Dade Police Department exchanged gunfire at a busy intersection, with both robbers, the hostage, and 70-year-old civilian Richard Cutshaw being killed.

Notable Developments

Following the shooting, Coral Gables Police Chief Ed Hudak Jr. made a press statement.^[2]

This is what dangerous people do to get away, and this is what people will do to avoid capture. In matters like this, it is just difficult for all of us, not just in law enforcement but also in society. This is what we sign up to do, but these people don't.

On December 5th, 2019, the UPS Twitter account posted a statement in which they expressed gratitude to the law enforcement (shown below, left).^[9] On the following day, UPS Twitter account removed the original statement, replacing it with another one (shown below, right).^[10]

Online Reactions

On Twitter and other social media, multiple users criticized the actions of the police officers, accusing the Miami-Dade Police Department of applying poor tactics and using excessive force.^[3]^[4]^[5] Posts criticizing the original statement posted by the UPS were also made.^[6]

On Twitter, iFunny and Instagram, multiple memes critical of the police actions were posted. For example, a Silent Protector meme shared by Instagram user humanity.gone24 gained over 6,400 likes in two days.^[7] A meme posted by iFunny user SaltySpecialistC4CFnoon received over 34,000 smiles in the same period.^[8]