\n\t\t\t\t\t\tA family is demanding justice after a 92-year-old woman died following a car crash over the weekend with an Orlando Police cruiser. Orlando Police told WESH 2 Investigates the Traffic Homicide Unit is now investigating the accident that happened early Sunday morning at the intersection of Semoran Boulevard and Hoffner Avenue. The initial traffic crash report found the marked Orlando Police vehicle was at fault. The family said Milagros Ortiz took her last breath at 6:59 Monday night at Orlando Regional Medical Center while surrounded by her loved ones. \u201cJust because you’re a police officer, that doesn’t allow you to just go and run a red light to do whatever it is that you’re doing,\u201d Ortiz\u2019s daughter Judy Santiago said. Ortiz was the matriarch of her family. She was living her life to the fullest at 92-years-old. “My mom wasn’t the average 92-year-old,\u201d Ortiz’s daughter Evelyn Alicea said. \u201cLike when we go to the hospital, all the doctors would think, but she’s 92-years-old. But she was a strong 92, a vibrant 92.”Ortiz\u2019s children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren said they are devastated by her sudden death after she was badly injured in the crash around 1:45 a.m. Sunday.”I know it’s going to be harder for my sister,\u201d Santiago said, \u201cbecause my sister lived here with her, so she’s got the brunt of the memories, because waking up, doing mom’s coffee. Like just now, when we were sitting here, we both were thinking at the same time, but where’s mommy? We got to get her so she could come join us to sit down, because and we can no longer do that.”The family said a 64-year-old friend was driving Ortiz home from her weekly Saturday night bingo game. “I could have expected that, maybe from a drunk driver, which is what I used to tell my mom, be careful, because early hours in the morning, there’s a lot of drunk drivers out there,\u201d Alicea said. \u201cAnd that’s what I would always worry about. And like I said, that’s why we had her location. But it never in a million years I would have thought it was a police officer that was going to hit her.”According to the traffic crash report, there\u2019s video of the collision that corroborated a witness account. The witness said a marked Orlando Police vehicle was stopped at a red light while headed westbound on Hoffner Avenue, but then drove into the intersection of Semoran Boulevard and hit the driver\u2019s side of Ortiz\u2019s friend\u2019s Jeep going southbound. The report said the police vehicle \u201cwas at fault for the collision due to failure to yield right of way.\u201dBoth vehicles had to be towed away from the scene, and firefighters took the officer, Ortiz, and her friend to ORMC.”We got to see her, and she was just, my chest pains, my chest hurts,\u201d Alicea said. \u201cShe was afraid.”Ortiz\u2019s family is calling on the State Attorney\u2019s Office to hold the officer accountable. \u201cAnd now that my mother’s gone,\u201d Santiago said, \u201che needs to be charged with vehicular manslaughter. I don’t know if that’s the right term, whatever, but he needs to be charged for taking my mother’s life.”The condition of the officer is not known.WESH 2 Investigates asked Orlando Police whether he was on or off duty at the time of the crash, but they replied they had no additional information to share on Tuesday afternoon. WESH 2 Investigates The WESH 2 Investigates team is comprised of Greg Fox and Justin Schecker.Justin Schecker joined the WESH 2 Investigates team in September 2024. He\u2019s spent the past six years of his broadcast journalism career reporting in Florida, with a focus on politics, criminal justice and education. Contact him at jschecker@hearst.com.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
A family is demanding justice after a 92-year-old woman died following a car crash over the weekend with an Orlando Police cruiser. <\/p>\n
Orlando Police told WESH 2 Investigates the Traffic Homicide Unit is now investigating the accident that happened early Sunday morning at the intersection of Semoran Boulevard and Hoffner Avenue. <\/p>\n
The initial traffic crash report found the marked Orlando Police vehicle was at fault. <\/p>\n
The family said Milagros Ortiz took her last breath at 6:59 Monday night at Orlando Regional Medical Center while surrounded by her loved ones. <\/p>\n
\u201cJust because you’re a police officer, that doesn’t allow you to just go and run a red light to do whatever it is that you’re doing,\u201d Ortiz\u2019s daughter Judy Santiago said. <\/p>\n
Ortiz was the matriarch of her family. She was living her life to the fullest at 92-years-old. <\/p>\n
“My mom wasn’t the average 92-year-old,\u201d Ortiz’s daughter Evelyn Alicea said. \u201cLike when we go to the hospital, all the doctors would think, but she’s 92-years-old. But she was a strong 92, a vibrant 92.”<\/p>\n
Ortiz\u2019s children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren said they are devastated by her sudden death after she was badly injured in the crash around 1:45 a.m. Sunday.<\/p>\n
“I know it’s going to be harder for my sister,\u201d Santiago said, \u201cbecause my sister lived here with her, so she’s got the brunt of the memories, because waking up, doing mom’s coffee. Like just now, when we were sitting here, we both were thinking at the same time, but where’s mommy? We got to get her so she could come join us to sit down, because and we can no longer do that.”<\/p>\n
The family said a 64-year-old friend was driving Ortiz home from her weekly Saturday night bingo game. <\/p>\n
“I could have expected that, maybe from a drunk driver, which is what I used to tell my mom, be careful, because early hours in the morning, there’s a lot of drunk drivers out there,\u201d Alicea said. \u201cAnd that’s what I would always worry about. And like I said, that’s why we had her location. But it never in a million years I would have thought it was a police officer that was going to hit her.”<\/p>\n
According to the traffic crash report, there\u2019s video of the collision that corroborated a witness account. <\/p>\n
The witness said a marked Orlando Police vehicle was stopped at a red light while headed westbound on Hoffner Avenue, but then drove into the intersection of Semoran Boulevard and hit the driver\u2019s side of Ortiz\u2019s friend\u2019s Jeep going southbound. <\/p>\n
The report said the police vehicle \u201cwas at fault for the collision due to failure to yield right of way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both vehicles had to be towed away from the scene, and firefighters took the officer, Ortiz, and her friend to ORMC.<\/p>\n
“We got to see her, and she was just, my chest pains, my chest hurts,\u201d Alicea said. \u201cShe was afraid.”<\/p>\n
Ortiz\u2019s family is calling on the State Attorney\u2019s Office to hold the officer accountable. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd now that my mother’s gone,\u201d Santiago said, \u201che needs to be charged with vehicular manslaughter. I don’t know if that’s the right term, whatever, but he needs to be charged for taking my mother’s life.”<\/p>\n
The condition of the officer is not known.<\/p>\n
WESH 2 Investigates asked Orlando Police whether he was on or off duty at the time of the crash, but they replied they had no additional information to share on Tuesday afternoon. <\/p>\n
WESH 2 Investigates <\/p>\n
The WESH 2 Investigates team is comprised of Greg Fox<\/a> and Justin Schecker<\/a>.<\/p>\n Justin Schecker joined the WESH 2 Investigates team in September 2024. He\u2019s spent the past six years of his broadcast journalism career reporting in Florida, with a focus on politics, criminal justice and education. Contact him at jschecker@hearst.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A family is demanding justice after a 92-year-old woman died following a car crash over the weekend with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[62318,1776,34864,1089,2620,12115,62320,62316,20922,139,141,140,62317,62319,1738,29695,918,192],"class_list":["post-125744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-64-year-old-friend","tag-crash","tag-drunk-driver","tag-family","tag-intersection","tag-investigates","tag-justin-schecker","tag-milagros-ortiz","tag-mom","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-orlando-police-cruiser","tag-orlando-police-vehicle","tag-police-officer","tag-semoran-boulevard","tag-wesh","tag-woman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}