MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Loved ones of an FDLE special agent who lost his life in the line of duty said their final farewell Monday.
The funeral mass for Special Agent Jose Perez was held at St. Kevin Catholic Church in west Miami-Dade.
Perez died earlier this month at HCA Florida Kendall Hospital, 18 days after being hit by a driver in the area of Northwest 127th Avenue and Seventh Terrace.
Sources say the crash happened while he was on duty.
“He was a nice man – a gentleman,” retired El Portal Police Chief David Magnusson said.
Magnusson worked with Perez back when they each worked for the Miami Police Department.
“When I first became major he did work for me in the communications section. But even before that, we were friends,” Magnusson said.
Magnusson remembers Perez as a kind man and a good friend with a sense of humor.
“An interesting, kind, good person that I’m going to miss greatly,” he said.
Miami-Dade police arrested Ysmael Javier Sandoval, 35, who they said was driving under the influence of multiple substances on Tuesday, Aug. 2, when he crashed his 2017 Ford F-150 pickup truck into Perez’s unmarked FDLE vehicle, a 2015 Ford Taurus.
A toxicology report of Sandoval’s blood showed that alcohol, cocaine and marijuana were present.
After a difficult two weeks for the South Florida law enforcement community, which also lost a Miami-Dade police detective in the line of duty, Perez’s loved ones will gather one more time to pay their respects.
“With law enforcement being a large family, it’s affecting just a whole group of this -- what I call this calling. I don’t even call it a career -- it’s a calling. And there’s a lot of people hurt,” Magnusson said.
Sandoval is being held without bond.