City commissioner calls on Orlando police chief for answers in crash that killed 92-year-old

WESH 2 Investigates continues to push for answers after an Orlando police officer slammed his cruiser into a Jeep, killing a beloved 92-year-old grandmother. Orlando City Commissioner Tony Ortiz said the 2019 marked Ford Explorer that had a documented history of maintenance issues with its lights and sirens should not have been in service. "If it’s not working the way it's supposed to be,” he said, “it should have been put aside.”After viewing the crash video WESH 2 Investigates first aired last Thursday, Commissioner Ortiz said he has more questions for Chief Eric Smith "to see what's going on with fleet because at the end of the day, we're the ones who approve that funding for the fleet."In the early morning of Sunday, Jan. 18, Officer Andrew McKuhen came to a complete stop in his marked SUV in a left turn lane at Hoffner Avenue and Semoran Boulevard. The video showed the officer waited about a minute and a half before he slowly entered the intersection. His SUV’s emergency lights turned on, but then suddenly went dark, right before impact.A witness told WESH 2 Investigates he did not hear any sirens. The State Attorney's Office’s memo closing the case with no charges said the police vehicle hit 32 miles per hour at the time of the collision. "I saw the video that you sent me, and it was gruesome,” Commissioner Ortiz said. “It was sad. I really want to go ahead and see what else is behind this. I did see the lights going off."The family of Milagros Ortiz has been calling for accountability since first contacting WESH 2 Investigates back in January. “The Ortiz family is broken,” daughter Judy Santiago said. “Our hearts are broken."The State Attorney’s Office declined to charge the officer with vehicular homicide. The prosecutor’s memo revealed McKuhen’s vehicle had a documented history of issues related to its emergency lights and sirens. "We don't manage our own fleet, so the city manages the fleet for us," Smith said last week on “The Patrick Carr Show.”Smith said on the podcast McKuhen had brought the vehicle in for service three times before the deadly accident. He also suggested the city is looking into replacing all police vehicles older than six years. "We do need to get rid of the older vehicles,” Smith said on the podcast, “because as you can imagine any car that’s driven 12 hours a day. It’s an older car. It was wrecked about a year after it came into service. That probably should have been when it may have gone away, so we're looking at all those pieces, and then when you bring it in for service, it needs to be done in the correct way where it's permanently fixed."Commissioner Ortiz said the chief has not made a formal request to purchase new vehicles. "The police department is one of the ones that we spend the most money on, and because of that we need to be aware of how every dollar is being spent," the commissioner said.Orlando police said in an email on Monday the internal investigation into whether McKuhen violated department policies is still active and ongoing."So, to be honest, (McKuhen’s) been out,” Smith said on the podcast. “He got hurt in the accident, so he's basically been out. He just got back maybe a week ago. So, we'll have to talk to him."In recent years, two internal investigations found Orlando police officers engaged in unauthorized pursuits that ended with innocent lives lost. “There are certain crimes that we are authorized to do, but for the most part, most incidents, we're not authorized to do vehicle pursuits," Commissioner Ortiz explained. In February 2023, 28-year-old Delmy Alvarez was killed in a crash with a fleeing suspect after an officer pursued him for running a red light in Parramore. Two years later, 56-year-old Gerald Neal lost his life after an unmarked police truck chased a car for having an unreadable license plate on Rio Grande Avenue. According to OPD policy, officers should only engage in pursuits when they have reasonable suspicion fleeing suspects have committed or attempted to commit “violent forcible felonies.”Smith addressed the circumstances that led McKuhen to enter the intersection while the light was still red. "A vehicle does an illegal U-turn in front of him,” Smith said. “He hits his lights to go and make a traffic stop on that. From what we can gather, the vehicle had a failure."The initial Orlando police crash report found McKuhen was at fault for failure to yield the right of way.“For any questions regarding the Orlando Police Department's vehicle fleet, including fleet replacement, maintenance, inspections, or associated costs, we ask that you please contact the City's Fleet Division, as they are the appropriate subject matter experts,” an Orlando police spokesperson said in an email Monday.WESH 2 Investigates has also reached out to the Office of Mayor Buddy Dyer for comment about the video showing the deadly crash and the status of the OPD vehicle fleet.