MIAMI – To show respect and reverence for his life of service, police officers were standing guard over the casket of fallen Detective Cesar “Echy” Echaverry in rotating duty on Saturday at a funeral home in Miami-Dade County.
After a procession of firefighters and police officers on Friday, Echaverry’s colleagues were preparing for a memorial service on Wednesday morning at the home of his beloved Miami Marlins in Little Havana.
Echaverry, 29, was engaged to be married, but now instead of celebrating a wedding, his loved ones were forced to plan to meet for a funeral service at his final resting place in Nicaragua.
A robbery suspect shot Echaverry in the head while on duty on Monday night in Liberty City, and he died on Wednesday at Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center — after a five-year career with the Miami-Dade Police Department.
Police officers ceremoniously escorted Echaverry’s casket on Friday morning from the hospital’s Clark Diagnostic Treatment Center, at 1080 NW 19 St., to the Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner’s Department at 1851 NW 10 Ave., across the street.
A U.S. flag draped his casket in Miami’s Allapattah neighborhood before a motorcade escorted him to the funeral home on Friday. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue personnel used ladder trucks to fly a U.S. flag, measuring about 30 by 50 feet, over the road where motormen lined up in salute.
Hundreds of police officers from other departments including Coral Gables, Doral, Medley, West Miami, South Miami, and deputies from the Broward Sheriff’s Office lined up for the final honor.
Once the fallen officer’s casket was in the hearse outside of the Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner’s Department, a dignified honors motorcade escorted him to a funeral home where his broken-hearted family and friends met to mourn in private.
Overnight, the Freedom Tower in downtown Miami turned blue in honor of Echaverry’s sacrifice.
In West Little River, Echaverry’s unmarked black police car was parked on the sidewalk outside of the department’s Northside Police Station, at 799 NW 81 St. It was covered in balloons, flowers, and other tributes from grieving colleagues.
Echaverry was born on Dec. 8, 1992, in Hialeah. He played baseball while he was a student at John A. Ferguson Senior High School near the Kendall West neighborhood and for the Nicaraguan baseball league’s La Alcaldia Municipal de Diriá team, in Granada.
Echaverry returned to South Florida to study criminal justice at Miami Dade College and Florida International University. He joined MDPD in 2017 and had just marked his fifth anniversary with the department in April.
Echaverry served in the South District before he was promoted to the MDPD’s robbery bureau’s intervention detail. He played softball with the Miami-Dade Five-O, Metro Dawgs, and the Enforcers teams, and he was a regular of the Virginia Key Trails.
Echaverry is survived by his parents, Sandra and Cesar Echaverry, and his sister, Sandra Virginia.
Friday’s reports
Watch the 11 p.m. report
Watch the 6 p.m. report
Watch the 5 p.m. report
Watch the 4 p.m. report
Watch the 12 p.m. report
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