CPR on "Superman": The Partner Rick Rossman Couldn't Save — Part 2

About this episode

Rick Rossman shares his harrowing experiences as a police officer in Miami, reflecting on the impact of violence and loss in his career.

Part 1 ended on the Thanksgiving 1983 murders of Rick Rossman's Metro-Dade partners Richie Boles and David Strzalkowski — shot with their own service weapons by ex-con Charlie Street — and Rick's admission that in more than four decades since, he has never spoken to anyone professionally about that night. Part 2 opens with Rick off-duty at a Miami nightclub when the radio erupts: a chase, shots fired, an officer down. The officer was Joseph "Superman" Martin — Rick's friend since they were teenagers, a power lifter known for wearing a Superman costume to take his kids trick-or-treating. By the time Rick arrived on scene, Joey had been shot three times by a teenager the squad personally knew. Rescue got lost. Rick performed chest compressions alone as Joey bled out on the pavement. Back at the station, Bill Erfurth walked him fully clothed into a shower stall and watched "Joey's lifeblood" swirl down the drain. Four cops dead in four years, all on midnight shifts. Rick's public push for minimum staffing made him "like a cancer" to command. Thirty-two years into the job, he reflects on carrying the weight, what Miami looked like in the Scarface era, and the one thing a…

People in this episode

Guest: Rick Rossman

Topics covered

• law enforcement
• personal trauma
• police shootings
• Miami history
• career reflections
• public safety

Keywords

• CPR
• police
• Miami
• murders
• officer down
• law enforcement career
• trauma
• Scarface era

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