Thanksgiving weekend, 1983. Only five officers were assigned to cover an entire Miami-Dade, Florida district that night. Before his first call, Rick Rossman told his sergeant it felt like suicide going out that short-staffed. By 2:14 that morning, two of his partners were dead.

Richie Boles and David Strzalkowski responded to a disturbance call — the same call Rick couldn't take because he had a robbery suspect in his back seat. The man waiting for them was Charlie Street: a violent ex-con whose criminal history never surfaced in a records check because the system was down. Street overpowered both officers and shot them multiple times with their own weapons.

Rick arrived on scene to find both partners lying in the road. He drove to a highway overpass and waited alone — betting he could cut Street off before he reached I-95. Broward County caught him first. When Rick arrived to make the identification, Street looked at him and smiled. Rick says he doesn't remember much of what happened next.

Part 1 covers that entire Thanksgiving night shift — the systemic failures, the murders, and the long weight that followed. Part 2 picks up with a third line-of-duty death Rick was first on scene for: the murder of Officer Joey Martin.

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🔔 Turn on notifications so you don't miss Part 2 — it's already in production.

I believe it was 2:14 in the morning.

So it's not me additional, I've got a 43 running from me.

That was the last thing he said.

Working area two actually had the robbery call

came, and I said, "Here, take him, I gotta go."

So I started running code back to Biscayne Boulevard again.

And just before I get there, Frank

Rodriguez, he was a canine officer, got there.

He was first on the scene and he's advised,

"Start rescue, I've got two officers down."

(Upbeat Music)

Thanksgiving weekend, 1988.

Only five officers were assigned to

cover an entire Miami-Dade, Florida district.

Rick Rossman was one of them.

14 that morning, two of his partners were dead.

If you wore the badge in

Miami-Dade County in the 1980s, you felt it.

The rules had changed.

Every call had more weight.

Every encounter could turn in an instant.

Things were different.

South Florida basically was coming apart.

In the 80s were a crazy time.

It was referred to as the cocaine cowboy era.

And the violence during that decade was beyond the scope.

It was truly out of control.

But we share something unique as to where our assignment was as

young, new cops on the police department.

And back then it was called the Metro-Dade Police Department.

And four of our personal friends were killed in the line of duty.

And as young cops, that's something that you never forget and

something that you always hold on to for the rest of your life.

So Stephen Corbett was the first officer that was killed.

He was a new officer, riding with his field training officer when

he was feloniously struck by a vehicle,

drug under the vehicle for a hundred yards and died on the scene.

Richie Boles and David Strzalkowski

were attacked by an ex-con lunatic

who shot and killed them in cold blood.

Joey Martin was on a traffic stop, stepped

out of his vehicle and was shot and killed.

The commonality of all of these four officers' murders

is that Rick was one of the first to be on the

scene of three of those horrendous homicides.

And so Rick, we're gonna start off talking about Richie and Dave

and you are working the midnight shift.

And I'm just gonna let you get into the story.

Okay, it was Thanksgiving weekend.

And as you know, it was a Sunday night, which

is two area patrol back then, which is common

for the district, which meant you would have maybe

seven to a squad if you had a full company of 14.

But that particular night, because the holiday weekend and people

out on injuries and people calling in sick, we went out and there

was only five of us working for the whole district.

And when I found that out, I told the Sarge, I go, this is like

suicide, can't you call someone else in?

And he said, my hands are tied because of the overtime.

And we went out and my first call,

there were already like 13 calls holding.

I was dispatched to a missing

person, a lady from an old folks home.

And by the time I got there, they

said, they last seen her walking out back.

And I walked out back, it was a big rock pit.

And I saw her aviation came out and he said, yeah, she's floating.

And when I looked at her, I could see that she

was trying to talk to me or lips were moving.

So I said, she's alive, I'm gonna go in and get her.

And the helicopter was going, no, you can't wait for backup.

And I go, there is no backup.

It was just me.

So I was familiar with the area.

So I went in, pulled her out, she was

alive, rescue came and they basically saved her.

But while we're doing this, there was a call about fire rescue

requesting assistance at a gas station on Biscayne Boulevard.

And they'd been waiting about 30 minutes with someone that they

needed assistance and we were short.

And I said, well, I'm soaking wet.

So I went home, I happened to live close by and while I'm changing,

the call went out now it was an emergency.

They had opted from a routine call to a two, which is code.

So at this point in time, I'm dressed.

I said, okay, I'll take it.

But I was on the West side.

Richie was on the East side.

He would just come out and he was the adventurer unit.

As you know, Evan, he was assigned to that particular area.

So Richie gets there and he slows me down.

And when I get there, I see this

gentleman later known to me as Charlie Street.

There was a queer criminal just out of prison.

He was released by shortages, I think they said.

And Richie was talking to him and he wouldn't answer Richie.

Just basic name stuff, date of birth, where you're from.

And he wouldn't answer Richie's, but fire rescue would repeat

Richie's question and he'd answer it.

And Richie ran him, which is basically, checked him computer check.

And he came back with no past.

And back then, this is the eighties,

you don't have the instantaneous stuff.

And he came back with no past because

it was local, everything else was down.

So we weren't access to his battery and

assault on law enforcement previous in Deerfield.

And I still have to write my report about the ladies.

So I'm sitting there writing the report and he

goes, well, we can't really do anything, we're short.

And I said, well, he needs to go to jail, he's lying to us.

He goes, well, we're short, we can't

afford to lose you for three hours.

I go, okay.

So I start writing my report, they

called MediCar because that was a solution.

He'd be a rescue had brokered, get him in the MediCar, take him to

Jackson for his medical so-called issues.

He gets in the ambulance and that was last I saw of them because

then now they're putting out a robbery in progress down on the West

side, one of the stopping robs over there.

And Al LePore, the sergeant, he goes, I'll back you.

So the two of us start running over there.

And as we get there,

this individual starts fleeing across the road and he's being

chased by the clerk who's clearly wearing this, the 7-Eleven stuff.

And I'm gonna move my car to a point to where basically the subject

runs into my car and we're able to take him into custody.

So I've got a robbery subject in my car.

And about this time now, a call goes out back again on the East

side about a man screaming for help.

And again, she's raising, because

we're gonna measure only like five of us.

Can you clear?

And I go, no, I can't clear.

I've got a robbery subject in my back seat right now.

So as when Richie says, okay, I'll take it.

And Dave, who was working the beach, which was one of the other

assigned, meant that we had to staff

and he was closer to that interior.

He said, I'll take the backup.

So the two of them start going to the call and I'm waiting for the

check to come back on the robbery subject,

because as it turned out, it didn't happen tonight.

It had happened a couple of nights previously.

And now you have to look up the case.

Okay, then Richie gets on about this time.

I believe it was 2:14 in the morning.

So it started to be additional.

I've got a 43 running from me.

That was the last thing he said.

And- So a 43 means disturbed.

Crazy person.

Yeah, yes.

Kind of like the LA's, whatever

they call it, with Van Halen's at-home.

But basically, yeah, he says, start me additional.

And then it's dead silent.

Nothing, nothing.

And at that point in time, one of the other officers working area

two actually had the robbery call came,

and I said, here, take him, I gotta go.

So I started running code to back to Biscayne Boulevard again.

And just before I get there, Frank

Rodriguez, he was a canine officer, got there.

He was first on the scene and he's

advised, start rescue, I've got two officers down.

So when I pull up,

there's both Richie and Dave are lying in the road.

There's only one police car.

And I've got a gentleman,

there was a car parked over by where Dave's car was.

And I go, did you see what happened?

And he goes, yeah, I did.

And he describes to me about a large black individual who was

walking down the street and threw like a muffler at him or a big

piece of rock or metal that hit his car.

So he dials 911 saying this.

And he goes about the same time as he

was doing this, two police cars came.

And he saw one pull around to the

front where the subject was standing.

He's in the middle of South Biscayne Boulevard.

And Richie pulled around for the South side.

So the way he described it is they had the

police cars in between and street was in the middle.

And they got out.

Charlie Street, this is the subject's name was Charlie Street.

And Charlie, if I remember correctly,

was like 62230, 240, hardest, big, I mean,

he was strong as a bull.

Just got out of prison.

Oh yeah, he had no, he was just huge.

Rick, let me just ask, I'm a little confused.

I thought earlier, Charlie Street went,

gotten an ambulance and they were taking him away.

And somehow he got out of the ambulance and now it came back.

What happened?

That's what I'm building up to, yeah.

Because when the guy tells me this and

describes him and that he was walking up Dixie Highway,

see, it wasn't my call, so I didn't take notes.

I didn't know the subject's name or anything because Richie had all

that, Richie wrote it because I had my own report to do.

So I raised the dispatcher and this is one of the things where I

feel like maybe I did wrong that night because I wasn't maybe

thinking again, you know, what is

because he had taken a police car.

So he was able to hear now what I was saying.

So what I basically told the dispatch, asked the dispatcher, I

said, go to channel D, which does our records, run the, find out

the subject's name and information that we had ran earlier at the

gas station and then check with

MediCar and see if they let him out.

And about five minutes later, then she came back and said, yes,

MediCar let him out of Miami Gardens at Dixie, which was literally

where he was walking north from, you know, coming up Dixie Highway

and the original call about a man screaming, you know, on Dixie and

then when he crossed over to Biscayne.

I think that's why he threw the rock.

He was trying to steal a car to get

back to, I believe it was Deerfield.

Deerfield Beach, Florida.

Yes, where he was in prison for aggravated

assault and attacking, I think a police officer there.

So now I'm trying to figure out what had happened, what had placed

and I'm looking at them and rescue comes

and they're both, you know, they're

both, to all purposes, they're dead.

Rescue takes them and they said, you know,

takes them to the hospital where they died later.

But from what he explained to me, and then basically being in

altercations with both of them in resting subjects, Richie, we used

to do the LVNR, even though we weren't trained for it yet.

The lateral vascular neck restraint, the choke hold basically.

Yes, basically he got a, he had worked for Seminole Police

Department, so he had been trained to do it there.

And I know one other time with this large individual drunk who was

like 300 pounds, Richie successfully, you know,

put the guy under, we were able to subdue him.

So the way he described to me, it sounded like Richie was right

around behind him trying to do the LVNR and Dave was doing, you

know, we do the old Miami Dade takedown, got in low around his

waist and they're trying to control him.

That's what the guy says, he's trying to reach him.

And that's when the guy's, the witness said, he got, I think he

basically just ripped Richie's gun from his holster.

And then because Dave was down low, and you know, when he bent

over, your vest kind of, you know, makes a U.

And because he was there, I think that's

when he fired one shot underneath Dave's vest.

And then another one, I know for sure, I think he probably shot him

in the cheek, like right under the eye.

I remember that.

And then Richie was over about 15 yards

south of him, but his car wasn't there.

So that's when I realized I go, shoot, he took the police car.

And I think that was part of the bolo.

I said, he's probably heading north, he's in the police car.

But again, he was able to hear all this.

And what the, again, the witness told me is that when he saw him,

Richie tried to get to his car and he kept, he fired a couple of

shots at Richie and he shot one time at him.

You know, I think he had a bullet hole in his car.

I don't remember.

But Richie apparently got to the side of the

police car, driver's side, where he kept a shotgun.

And that's where Street came back over there and shot him again.

And I think he might've fallen

because they said that Street ran him over.

So Richie might've fallen in such a way.

Now that Street was able to take the police car and drive north.

So the crazy thing about this was,

both Richie and Dave were shot multiple times with their own guns,

especially like Richie's, Dave's gun was taken after Dave was dead.

Yeah, well, I guess he emptied, but

after he emptied all the rounds, initially,

he literally pulled his vest back from his body.

So then trying to say, he's crazy.

He was thinking.

And unloaded the firearm into his torso.

Both of them had been shot in the head.

They were both, you know, horrendously murdered.

And then Charlie Street took one of their police cars, ran them

over in the street, and then fled north out

of Miami up towards the Fort Lauderdale area.

And that's when Rick was on, Rick was literally on a shit hunt.

You were like gonna find this guy no

matter what, and just go with that, Rick.

Yeah, at that point in time now, rescuer loading him up, and people

were trying to sit there, and they're trying, you know, we didn't

even have enough people to secure our

perimeter, you know, on a crime scene.

So, you know, thank God for North Miami Beach.

North Miami came down, and they were able, but I said, you know,

and the guys were like, all

distraught, and I'm like, I know this fuck.

He's not familiar with the area.

He's lost.

So what I figured is maybe if he was driving, if I went straight

down Ives Derry, which was adjacent to

where we were, I-95's a mile and a half away.

So when there's an overpass there,

I've went to the Stephen Corbett overpass, and I'm sitting there

waiting, figuring that he's gonna maybe drive north or south.

I got a chance I can find him if he got lost, and he finally finds

his way to I-95, but, you know, I can grab him.

So I'm sitting there, and literally about five minutes later,

Broward BSO gets on saying that they

think they have our subject in custody.

Can I go there and identify him?

By that time, I'm already halfway there, and I get to, I believe it

was Sterling Road, and they had taken him in custody.

You know, a unit, he had advised

that he saw the car coming with one headlight out, and thought it

was suspicious at this time in the morning, because by this time

it's now close to three in the morning on a Monday, and it had a

headlight, and he saw the subject

driving it that kind of looked like our thing.

So he might- Cutting to the chase there, Rick.

So Charlie Street, the murder

suspect, fled north into Broward County

in the marked Metro Dade police car,

with the overhead lights going and whatnot.

So several police officers saw this vehicle.

They weren't quite sure what the deal was because of the radio

communications between the counties.

Yeah.

Charlie Street, as you were just talking about, about the vehicle

with the one headlight, he realized that he needed to get out of

the police car, and he carjacked a woman at gunpoint, and took her

vehicle, which was the vehicle with the one headlight, correct?

Yes, and apparently he even said that he was

waiting in Hollywood and ambushed with a shotgun.

He was smart enough to take Richie's shotgun from the police car,

so he had still had the revolver, and he had the shotgun, and he

was waiting for a Hollywood unit or BSO unit to come so he could

shoot them and take that car so it wouldn't be as young.

Like I said, remember he was listening

to my transmission, so I guess he knew.

Yeah, while he was in their police car, he could hear all the radio

traffic if he was smart enough to figure that out.

But Rick,

clearly this is an emotional,

chaotic, hectic situation, and you get there, and they need you up

in Hollywood near Fort Lauderdale to identify this guy as the

shooter, and you get there and it was a pretty situation.

Yeah, he was in the back of the police car, so they walk over to

where he's handcuffed and he's in the back of the patrol car.

I mean, again, I don't remember any of this.

This is what they told me because, like

you said, it's maybe 10 to black things out.

But when I looked at him to identify him, and I knew right away it

was him, he smiled at me, and that's when they said that I looked

like I was going for my gun, and I don't.

So then they grabbed me and they

put me in the back of a police car.

They kept the door open, but they waited for,

they had Alapour come and, you know, yeah, so.

Just to settle you down, I mean,

everybody has to realize that's listening to this.

We are human beings and human emotions and so many of those things.

And, you know, I know Craig is gonna get into that in a little bit

about, you know, the toll that it takes psychologically and

mentally and the number of traumatic incidents and whatnot.

But, you know, I wanna get into a little bit more in the aftermath

of all this wreck, and I know you remember this, you know, vividly.

We were there.

We went to the funeral.

And, you know, we went to a lot of funerals back in the day, way

too many funerals, not only for our

agency, but so many of the other agencies.

So we went to Dave and Richie's funeral,

and Dave's wife, Debbie, was a nurse.

And she made the determination that she

wanted to have an open-casket viewing.

And people tried to talk her out of that.

Was a little bit crazy, because Dave was a small

guy to begin with, and he was shot in the head,

and like you said, in the face.

And I remember walking up at the viewing and looked in the casket,

and he's in his dress police

uniform, and his head looked like a pumpkin.

I mean, literally looked like a pumpkin.

His eyes were stretched sideways, almost like an Asian.

His nose was flat.

The sides of his mouth were pulled back because of the swelling.

It was so unbelievable.

I mean, I can still see it today after how many years later, right?

And her argument was, I want everyone to see Dave in the casket,

the way he looks, his head swollen like a pumpkin, because I want

every one of these officers to

remember this so it won't happen to them.

And you want to talk about something that was unbelievable.

You remember that?

Oh yeah, and Debbie's something special.

The other thing you know, because of that, she went and joined COPS

and became the president, which is Concerns of Police Survivors.

And Debbie's a fantastic person.

She's just amazing.

And she was just living because the whole thing was that Miami-Dade

dictated to both of those widows what was going to happen.

And she would, because they both had to

have the same funeral in the same location.

And it was just a lot of the things our department did was wrong.

And that's what was her impetus to go with cops.

And she's an amazing individual.

You know, I remember something else

too that really kind of affected me.

And I'm not going to mention names, but there was a particular

sergeant and he decided that he was

going to volunteer to dress their bodies.

And I thought, oh my God, you

know, like this is kind of horrendous.

And so for whatever reason,

he volunteered to do this instead of the funeral home people and

wanted to make sure that their uniforms

looked proper and everything in the casket.

And he literally dressed them and put them in the caskets.

I thought, I don't know.

I don't think that's something I can do.

And I have to say, you know, we all have our

breaking points or our defining moments in our careers.

And that was one of them.

I mean,

you and I and so many of our friends, we were like good soldiers.

We were good soldiers that we were going

to go and represent and go to every funeral.

And Florida was like the number two or number three state in the

United States for line of duty deaths.

And we were going to funerals all over the place.

And finally, you know, like after this and so many others, I said,

you know what, for my mental health, I can no longer do that.

I'm not going to any more funerals, nobody's funeral.

Boom.

Yeah, honestly, to be honest with you, I stayed outside, Richie's.

I did a traffic detail because I couldn't go inside of the church.

I wasn't inside for Richie or Dave's

Memorial and police funerals, I just, I can't do.

Even when taps is played sometimes, you know,

it still kind of brings all that stuff back.

You know, Rick and Bill alluded to it.

We've on this show about the mental health of officers who have to

deal with so much trauma in their careers.

The statistics tell us that most officers on average deal with

about 400 to 600 traumatic events, very similar to what you've just

described in very vivid, powerful terms.

And yet the average person deals with

maybe two or three in their lifetime, right?

So I'm just,

you know, there's so many questions here.

One is, okay, right after this incident, after the funeral,

we're talking the 1980s, a different time than what happens today.

Was there any counseling offered to you?

Were you back on the job the very next day?

I mean, how did you decide to department?

No, definitely not the next day.

Definitely not the next day.

Yeah.

That's good.

As Bill was saying, they actually ordered me to write the report,

but that's neither here nor there.

But later, Bill, the department psychologist

was always trying to get me to sit down and talk.

And I guess it's, but I'd have to say it's personal with everyone,

because I've never really talked

to anyone professionally about this.

And, you know, and I think it's just something that you have to

deal with individually, everyone.

And like I said, I know that I still have some of these issues and

stuff, but, you know, it's just, you just

either have to handle it or you don't handle it.

That's just the way I've handled it.

I just kind of like put it in a little box and

just buried it back in the corner of my mind.

And you know, Craig, what was interesting about what Rick just said

was at least our department had a psychological services unit.

We had on staff psychologist.

That was very, very rare back in the 80s.

Not too many agencies had that.

That was kind of, you know, cutting edge for all of us.

But, you know, also I'll tell you what, the whole police culture,

it's very stoic and very macho and, you know, like showing your

emotions wasn't, wasn't really the way to go back then.

Yeah, and what I'm hearing is that it was voluntary, right?

Like you say the psychological services were available, but this is

what changed over time based on what I've experienced with others

in the profession that today it's mandatory, right?

I mean, there is no, do you need help?

Come to us if you think you need help.

It's we're going to give you help

because we know you need it, all right?

As Bill said at the very beginning of

this show, officers are human beings, right?

You can't deal with death and friends that are lying in blood in

front of you and not have an impact

on your emotions and on your life.

And so today I'm so thankful that we've come a long way in how we

treat officers who are involved in officer involved shootings or a

line of duty death situations that you've described.

We're not making it voluntary.

And I think it's helped a lot.

A lot of officers who needed help

maybe didn't even realize they needed help.

And Rick, it sounds like maybe that that's your case.

Like you say, you kind of

compartmentalized the trauma of that event.

And you went on with your life and you went back on the job the

very next day and you had to deal with it in your own way.

And I have to believe it had an impact on your life.

No doubt.

I wouldn't dispute that.

And sure it has an impact and we're going to talk about this next

story, which I think is probably had an even greater impact.

And Rick and I had some experiences and we're going to talk that

again in a minute with Joey Martin's murder.

And you know, as you said, Craig, you compartmentalize these things

and Rick and I shared some of this and we've talked about it, but

we never really talked about it until right before doing this

podcast interview today, where Rick and I kind of threw it around

on the phone and went back and forth.

And you know, I had to always believe in my mind that Rick was

carrying some heavy, heavy weight from the crazy shit that he had

to deal with in these situations.

But you know, I never asked him that because we just kind of dealt

with it and we were there and we could talk about it, but we never,

as cops, you just don't really go up and put

your arm around somebody and say, how are you?

Rick's story isn't over.

Part 2 picks up with Joey Martin.

Hit subscribe and it's already waiting in your feed.

(Upbeat Music)