DORAL, Fla. — Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office Deputy Leonard “Leo” Cantave, a military veteran, wore a suit and used a wheelchair to get on stage during a ceremony on Thursday in Doral.
Miami-Dade Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz awarded Cantave, a former corrections officer, with the agency’s Lifesaving Award, Gold Medal of Valor, Purple Heart, and Distinguished Deputy of the Month.
“I was just doing my job,” Cantave said while holding a microphone during the ceremony. His colleagues — who described him as a hero after a driver struck him on Dec. 27 on the Turnpike — disagreed.
According to Detective Samantha Choon, Cantave used his marked police car “to shield those on scene,” and while “facing a split-second life-or-death decision,” he “acted on pure instinct and selflessness.”
Cantave pushed a Doral police officer out of the way of a speeding car that then struck him “with devastating force, propelling him through the air across three lanes of traffic,” according to Choon.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue personnel flew Cantave to the HCA Florida Kendall Hospital’s trauma center. He underwent several emergency surgeries and intensive medical treatment.
Cantave had demonstrated resilience and heroism before. He was born in New Jersey and grew up in Haiti. When his mother died in Haiti, he had to move to New York and Miami to live with relatives.
Cantave served 20 years in the U.S. Army. He was an officer and served in Kosovo, formerly part of Serbia, where he fell in love with his wife, according to relatives.
After his service with the U.S. Army, Cantave served about 14 years as a Florida Department of Corrections officer. As a deputy, Cantave made headlines when he helped Maria Isabel Garcia, who was homeless and living in a van in 2023.
Garcia had lost her job as a security guard during the COVID-19 pandemic. Cantave took her to a gas station to fill up her van’s tank, found someone to donate a new battery for her van, partnered with a dispatcher to raise money to help her renew her driver’s and security licenses, and to renew her car registration and car insurance. Garcia referred to him as “an angel.”
After his heroism on Dec. 27, Cantave was in a coma for about a week at the HCA Florida Kendall Hospital. He suffered a broken leg and arm, injured a shoulder, and suffered internal injuries.
Cordero-Stutz was at HCA Florida Kendall Hospital to hug Cantave when doctors and nurses released him to go home on Feb. 2.
Nearly three months of treatment later, Cantave was still on his road to recovery. He used a sling to immobilize his right arm.
“Cantave of the Midwest District’s Neighborhood Resource Unit is the Distinguished Deputy of the Month for February 2026 for his heroic lifesaving actions,” Choon announced in a statement.
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