He Called It Suicide. By 2:14 AM, Two Partners Were Dead | Part 1

He Called It Suicide. By 2:14 AM, Two Partners Were Dead | Part 1

From Heroes Behind the Badge by Citizens Behind the Badge

April 21, 2026 · 28 min · Episode 49

About this episode

The episode recounts the tragic events of a Thanksgiving night in 1983 when two police officers were killed due to systemic failures in the Miami-Dade police department.

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…

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Host: Citizens Behind the Badge

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Places: Miami-Dade, Florida

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