An off-duty police officer in South Florida was critically injured Friday after he was shot in the head by his former girlfriend on Friday, authorities said.
According to the Hialeah Police Department, the suspected shooter is Yessenia Sanchez, 32, a former police officer who had a seven-year relationship with the officer, the Miami Herald reported. Sanchez was charged with attempted first-degree murder with a deadly weapon, aggravated stalking and leaving the scene of an accident, according to Miami-Dade County online court records.
Police said that Sanchez used a GPS to track the victim to a home at about 6:40 a.m., shot him once and then crashed her vehicle while attempting to flee, according to the newspaper. She left the vehicle and Hialeah police officers later arrested her at her home at about 7:50 a.m., WPLG-TV reported.
According to the Miami-Dade Police Department, the officer underwent surgery on Friday and was listed in critical but stable condition.
“We continue to pray for a speedy recovery,” the agency tweeted.
“He’s out of surgery, and he’s been moved over to a room,” police spokesperson Alfredo “Freddy” Ramirez III told reporters, according to WSVN-TV. “His family is with him right now.”
Sanchez was arrested in September 2021 on a domestic violence charge after a fight with the victim, who was identified in court documents as Miami-Dade police Officer Damian Colon, the Herald reported.
WPLG and WTVJ, citing law enforcement sources, also identified the victim as Colon.
Colon is a 17-year veteran with the Miami-Dade Police Department, according to WTVJ.
Sanchez, who was hired by the Miami-Dade Schools Police Department in June 2019, resigned shortly after her arrest last year, the Herald reported.
Ramirez said the department is optimistic that Colon will recover.
“He’s still with us, and we want to ride that positivity,” Ramirez told reporters. “We ask that the community ride that positivity with us for him and his family.”
