Cape CopCast
Welcome to "The Cape CopCast," the official podcast of the Cape Coral Police Department.
Hosted by Officer Mercedes Simonds, and Lisa Greenberg from our Public Affairs team, this podcast dives into the heart of Cape Coral PD's public safety, community initiatives, and the inner workings of our police department. Each episode brings you insightful discussions, interviews with key community figures, and expert advice on safety.
Cape CopCast
Chief's Chat #8: Fuego's Shooting Arrest, Stabbing Investigation Update & Honoring CCSO's Sgt. Diaz
In this episode of the Cape CopCast 'Chief's Chat,' hosts Lisa Greenberg and Officer Mercedes Simonds sit down with Chief Anthony Sizemore to address the shooting in the Fuego's Lounge parking lot and a domestic violence-related stabbing, emphasizing the swift actions taken by the Cape Coral Police Department. We also honor the memory of Sergeant Elio Diaz with the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office, highlighting the importance of community support during times of tragedy.
We cover:
• The shooting incident at Fuego's Lounge, the quick response from our Violent Crimes Unit and collaboration with the U.S. Marshals Task Force
• A stabbing case rooted in domestic violence
• The line of duty death of Sergeant Elio Diaz with the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office and how it's impacted law enforcement and our community
Welcome back to another episode of the Cape Cop cast chiefs chat edition. I'm one of your hosts, lisa Greenberg and I'm officer Mercedes Simons.
Speaker 2:Together we make up the public affairs office. Today. We're right before Christmas break, but we've also had a really busy week. We need to talk about and wrap some things up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so let's go ahead and bring in our special guest, our weekly guest. Now I feel, like you should just be called one of the hosts at this point. Well, I'm not special anymore, You're always special chief.
Speaker 1:We appreciate you coming and making the time to do this with us. Every week we did have a busy week. You wouldn't even know it's a holiday week, with all the things that we've been going through here and all the things that we have going on. I think we should start maybe by talking about kind of the things that happened and unfolded over the weekend. We had a shooting. That's getting a lot of attention.
Speaker 3:Had a shooting at a nightclub on Del Prado North called Fuego's Lounge and there's some viral video that's been put out, some surveillance video or cell phone.
Speaker 3:I'm not really sure where the source of the video is, but you can see several gunshots obviously what you don't want to have in any environment, especially here in the Cape.
Speaker 3:But we have witnesses, plenty of witnesses, cooperating with us. Our detectives were able to quickly get that intel, turn it into tangible evidence to go after somebody, and a shooter has been arrested. So our detectives were able to put the case together very quickly. We have an officer, a detective of ours, that's assigned to the US Marshal Task Force and that's what they do. They take probable cause, affidavits or warrants and they go get dangerous and or armed individuals, and that's what happened. So kudos to our major crimes detectives for a very quick arrest in this case, and our partnership with the US Marshals was paid dividends because they adopted the case. We're able to find our shooter and he's in custody already. The investigation is still ongoing. There's a lot of wrap up and a lot of other stuff to do, but that's just a good point for the community that they can breathe a little bit easier in that particular case.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and I know we'll look forward to being able to release more information on that. But with the investigation ongoing it kind of hinders us from being able to release too many details.
Speaker 3:Right, I'd love to tell the whole story.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 3:And we will at some point. It's a great story to tell Go from A to B on a crime and then having somebody in custody so quickly. There's a lot of good information there but we can't discuss it because there's other people we're trying to talk to and then you have to have a case preserved for the state to prosecute.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:What would you say? That we use the Marshall Task Force for the most?
Speaker 3:Exactly what you just saw. Very rarely do they cultivate a criminal investigation start to finish and they have a criteria that they have to meet before they'll adopt a case is what it's called. But what you just saw in the Fuego's case is exactly it. The CCPD worked it. We met with the victims, got the evidence developed, probable cause, had everything we need to put the individual into custody or under arrest and because there was a obviously a violent crime, multiple shots fired, there's a heightened safety level. And then they're absolute total professionals at finding dangerous people and putting them into custody or taking them into custody, and it's members of the US Marshals full-time. And then there's Lee County Sheriff, fort Myers PD, cape Coral PD, that supplement in the task force and they're called TFOs or task force officers. We have representation in that and it's very helpful when you're able to supply because if you have skin in the game, they're going to adopt your cases and go get your bad guys. And that's exactly what happened here.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. It's very interesting and I know a lot of the times when I was answering the media questions about this. They were like so the task force got them and I had to kind of explain what you just said, right.
Speaker 3:So we supply a detective that when FMPD or LCSO has somebody that they're looking for and the marshals adopt the case to for lack of a better word go get them. We help them do that, and when we need help, they all rally and help us. So it's partnership in its purest form.
Speaker 1:One other case too that we talked about a lot over the week and that kind of started unfolding over the weekend and has developed the last few days, is we had a stabbing that happened over the weekend and I know a lot of people were like, geez, this was a busy weekend, we had so many things going on what the heck is going on here in the Cape? But this one kind of turned out to be An interesting situation.
Speaker 3:It did Another violent crime. When it's just a headline, it's very unnerving. Still a sad story.
Speaker 3:Of course, but for the community at large. It's not something that you need to be mindful of an unknown suspect running around stabbing people. This was a tragic case of domestic violence or household violence that had really escalated to that level had really escalated to that level. But our investigation is revealing that this stabbing is looking more towards self-defense because of the circumstances surrounding the domestic violence, or DV incident, we call it. So the DV incident rate rises to the level of defending yourself and that was the method that was used and preliminarily it's looking like that's the case.
Speaker 1:You know, I think it's always a sigh of relief for the community when we do learn that this isn't some sort of random act of violence. This isn't something that you need to be making sure you lock your doors five extra times before you go to sleep at night. This was a kind of contained domestic type of situation Correct. One other thing, too, is I feel like I'd be remissed if we didn't mention that there was obviously a tragedy that happened within our Southwest Florida community over the last few days and we are, to be transparent, recording this on a Thursday because tomorrow is going to be an extremely busy day. We have the funeral for Sergeant Elio Diaz, who was shot and killed in the line of duty. He works for the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office. It's just an awful situation. I know that everyone here within our department has really been feeling that.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. Yeah, we typically shoot these on Friday to give a complete wrap for the week, but obviously tomorrow, being Friday, is going to be an all-day affair for the memorial service and the funeral rites for Sergeant Diaz. And it has hit home for the community at large, all of Southwest Florida, obviously Charlotte County. Our department has many officers who knew Elio Diaz from the academy, going back over 10 years to working various events with him. So he touched a lot of people in not only Charlotte County but even here in Lee County in law enforcement, where he was just a gregarious, dynamic personality that loved the job, loved the culture and a lot of people loved him.
Speaker 1:It's just so sad and I know, obviously, with our involvement, we're sending our honor guard and there's going to be a bunch of, like you said, people who knew him well that are going to be heading there, even people who didn't know him personally, who are just feeling affected by this. But I can't imagine all that goes into preparing for a funeral like this within your own department and everything that the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office might be dealing with right now.
Speaker 3:Yes, it is a very tall task. It sounds like it could be overwhelming because there's so many things that have to be done. So I'll look at it from a chief or sheriff's perspective and, knock on wood, we have not had an officer killed in the line of duty. We've had an officer shot, severely wounded. It was pretty touch and go, but I have been around Fort Myers Police Department. Sadly, the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office has had to go through this before Lee County as well.
Speaker 3:And what you do from a CEO's perspective is you have there's so many components. The primary component for tomorrow is the ceremonial aspect. So you have people in place that have been to school on how to do funerals and ceremonies. You have professional honor guard that train regionally. All of the other honor guards are going to go in support of them. Ours is no exception. You have motor units that are going to be part of leading and coordinating the procession. There's going to be law enforcement officers from all over the state, all over the country, that are going to come, as well as a huge contingent of the Southwest Florida public are going to come out. Many will come to the service. The roads will be lined.
Speaker 3:It is a massive job on the ceremonial front. What goes into that is meeting with his family to find out were there any particular wishes that he wanted Very delicate but very necessary because you have to get those lined up. So I have members of the department who have been to school, who have worked with others, and you can't be too proud or too afraid to ask for help. The Charlotte County Sheriff's Office, fort Myers, they've been through this and they have individuals on staff that are emotionally affected, but not directly emotionally affected like the host agency. So I would reach out to my partners and say can you come over help my team who are emotionally distraught and may not have that experience to do that? That's one component. But then you have an entire city or county that has 24-7, 365 full service law enforcement, that things are still happening. So you have to answer 911 calls, you have to respond, you have to continue to investigate and follow up on your other cases. It's a full-time job that doesn't stop Now. You're going to have help during the service, right? So either the Lee County or Sarasota or Northport or different departments are going to come in and run calls for service, answer 911 calls so that as many people from the host agency can go to the service, but that's a small window. You're back to it, so that's a responsibility. So you have the ceremonial, you have the everyday, that does not stop.
Speaker 3:And then, in the case of Sergeant Diaz, there are two distinct scenes and one of the two has an additional component. We won't get too into the weeds on it, but you have the tragic murder of Sergeant Diaz. That's a scene that has to be investigated because you know it's an officer in the line of duty, death, but it's still a homicide that has to be investigated. Then you have the second scene where the shooter went to a different location and then the deputies went there and then they had an encounter and that's a lethal force investigation. And there's also layered on top of that the administrative part to ensure that where policies followed, where your training protocols followed that's an administrative layer the state attorney's office will work on the shooting side, the death investigation side, to make sure was it a justifiable use of deadly force? So you have two scenes, three very distinct cases.
Speaker 3:Then in this lane, 24-7 full service plus corrections, because they're a sheriff's office as well, and then you have a ceremonial component that has zero room for error, because you have to provide the dignity and respect for the profession, for the family and ultimately for Sergeant Diaz. So Sheriff Promell has a lot on his plate right now. He's experienced, he's been through it and he has a network within the Florida Sheriff's Association, within the Florida Police Chiefs Association and locally to provide that support honor guard, traffic support and just emotional support to show up for your brother and sister officer. So it's a big deal. It's going to be a big deal tomorrow. I'm honored to go to pay my respects and to collectively grieve with the law enforcement community.
Speaker 1:It's a lot. It's a lot for Charlotte County, especially since they pretty much just went through something similar with the death of Deputy Taylor not too long ago. It feels like, so we're definitely sending all of our thoughts and prayers and everything we can to them. I can't even imagine what that's been like for them, and we're with you 100%.
Speaker 2:It's never easy dealing with it, even from an outside perspective, let alone an inside perspective. So that's why we're so happy to be a part of the assisting agency, and even just the motorcade of helping with the processional and things like that is just to let them know we're there for them, and we've seen a lot of support from the community as well. Just because you might not know someone personally doesn't mean that they didn't still have an impact on your life, and I think we can all say that he did.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, absolutely so, telling that our community is really impacted by it and it's because of that regional partnership that we have with the citizens and the visitors and business owners and everybody that calls this part of the world home has such a high degree of respect for the police and it's mutual Also, we're thinking of his family too.
Speaker 1:I can't even imagine what his wife and children are going through, and it's just so sad.
Speaker 3:Well said.
Speaker 1:Well, we will, of course, be at that. And to everyone who's listening right now, please be safe over the weekend. Drive safely. Remember to lock your car doors as well. I feel like we can always throw that one in there, and until then, we are going to take next week off because of the holiday, but we will be back the week after that. So, chief, we will see you then, see you in 2025. Thanks for joining us. Have a good one.
