Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier on Wednesday presented the 2024 Officer of the Year Award to a Sunrise detective wounded in a shootout with a criminal wanted for attempted murder.
Uthmeier presided over the Havana ceremony, an annual event hosted by the chief legal officer to recognize the heroism of Florida's top law enforcement officers. Alongside Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Mark Glass, they lauded the 12 nominees for various acts of selflessness, bravery, and ingenuity in capturing criminals and saving civilians.
But ultimately, Sunrise detective Robert Padron went home with the trophy following his pursuit and neutralization of a violent offender wanted for attempted murder and carjacking.
"We back the blue here in Florida," Uthmeier said. "We can work hard in Tallahassee to advance good policy, good law, good legislation, to change laws over time, but your actions, your bravery, your heroism—you save lives in real time."
On Jan. 2, 2024, Padron and several other detectives went searching for 31-year-old Romuliss Jarquives Hicks, wanted for shooting his girlfriend—the mother of his infant child—just three days earlier, armed carjacking, and possessing a firearm as a convicted felon.
Hicks and his girlfriend had gotten into an argument the night before the shooting, prompting her to take their daughter and stay at her stepmother's house, NBC Miami reported. When she returned to the apartment she shared with Hicks to get baby supplies, Hicks was there.
He chased her to her car, knocked her to the ground, and shot her at least twice. She was hit in the arm and the shoulder blade.
Hicks—convicted of robbery in 2014 and 2021 and already on probation until 2032—then stole her car, crashing into a parked vehicle, and fled the scene.
So when Detective Padron tracked down Hicks days later, pursuing the armed offender into a "busy area" and confronting him, Hicks shot the officer in the leg. Padron returned fire, neutralizing the threat.
"[Padron's] still recovering from the gunshot wound and is determined to return to full duty," Glass said Wednesday, presenting each nominee. "Detective Padron's actions potentially saved lives and stopped a violent suspect."
Padron won the Broward Fraternal Order of Police Heroism Award in February, and earned a Medal of Valor award earlier this week from the Broward Sheriff's Advisory Council for his actions.
The other eleven finalists were:
- Captain Robert Bourque of the Longboat Key Police Department
- Detective Mario Fajardo of the Florida Department of Financial Services, Criminal Investigation Division
- Master Deputy Kyle Gaddie of the Flagler County Sheriff's Office
- Inspector Guy Hill of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement
- Trooper David Kitchen of Florida Highway Patrol
- Agent Ron Minisalli of the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office
- Detective Autumn Moore of the Tallahassee Police Department
- Officer Anthony Moser of the Miccosukee Police Department
- Officer Brian Pridgeon of the Office of Agricultural Law Enforcement
- Detective Derek Rivers of the Lakeland Police Department
- Officer Jacob Wild of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
