Hialeah police search for ‘dangerous person’ accused of shooting at cops with AK-47
By Christina Veiga
cveiga@MiamiHerald.com
Andy Roman has only been out of prison since April. But he’s wanted by police again.
Roman, 23, was released just five months ago after serving time for a slew of violent charges, according to Florida Department of Law Enforcement records. Now, Hialeah police are looking for him after they say he used an AK-47 and a submachine gun to shoot at officers Sunday night.
In a photo released by Hialeah police, Roman has light blue eyes, tattoos wrapping around his neck and above his eyebrows, and gold teeth. Police think he has shaved his head.
“We’re dealing with a very dangerous person,” said Hialeah police spokesman Carl Zogby.
Hialeah police say Roman’s latest run-in with the law began Sunday night at the Crossway Motel on Okeechobee Road. Officers were investigating a shooting there that left two people with bullet wounds, when the police were shot at from a moving car.
The officers jumped into their cruisers and chased the gun-wielders as they sped away, still shooting at the cops. Police followed the shooters on a wild chase down Okeechobee Road, then onto State Road 112 and eventually onto Miami Avenue.
That’s where, police say, the bad guys dumped the older-model, blue Chevy Caprice they were driving. They ran and hid in a residential neighborhood.
Police say 22-year-old Osmani Ojeda was driving the car from which the shots were fired. Ojeda was arrested Sunday night after a manhunt that stretched eight blocks and included several police agencies.
But Hialeah police are still looking for Roman, who they say pumped bullets into the windshields, hoods, and even the cab of one police cruiser.
Roman has a history of using weapons to commit crimes and has been arrested at least 14 times, according to Florida Department of Law Enforcement records.
According to FDLE and Miami-Dade County court records:
Roman was first arrested at age 14 for battery and aggravated assault with a weapon. The battery was not prosecuted and the other charge was reduced. Roman entered a pretrial diversion program and stayed out of jail.
But he was arrested again just eight months later by Miami-Dade County Schools police for trespassing.
From then, Roman’s rap sheet continued to grow and it now spans from Miami to Tampa. He has faced charges of armed robbery, vehicle grand theft and criminal mischief resulting in property damage. In many cases, the charges have been dropped or Roman entered into programs to avoid jail time.
He hasn’t managed to keep out of jail, though. Roman went to state prison in November 2009 after pleading guilty to armed robbery with a weapon, displaying a weapon while committing a felony, two counts of resisting an officer, two counts of burglary, grand theft, stealing a vehicle and criminal mischief in two separate cases.
“Hope your time passes quick,” Judge David Miller told the teen after sentencing him, “and you are not going to be in there long enough to be really tainted and destroyed for life. And maybe something good will happen.”
Roman was supposed to be locked up for three years, and, according to his sentencing, should have still been in jail when police say he committed his latest crime of shooting at the cops. Instead, he got out of prison seven months early — on April 1, 2012.
Anyone with information about where to find Roman is asked to call Hialeah police at 305-687-2525, or Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS (3477).
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