HIALEAH, Fla. – The wife of a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer shot and killed at a west Miami-Dade gun range spoke to Local 10 News Thursday, remembering him as a loving husband and stepfather.
Sources said Jorge Arias, 40, a firearms instructor for the agency, was accidentally shot in the chest during a training exercise at the county-owned Trail Glades Range just before 10:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Miami-Dade police confirmed Thursday that the shooting involved a second officer. Sources told Local 10 News the shooting happened during a “building search training,” and a fellow instructor shot Arias in the chest during a demonstration.
Arias’ wife, Ana Mary Arias, said she and her husband first met at Hialeah-Miami Lakes High School and have been together since 2013, the same year he joined CBP.
In addition to his duties as a firearms instructor, he was assigned to the Miami International Airport.
She said he was also a U.S. Coast Guard reservist and had just re-enlisted and was also proud of his career in law enforcement.
“He was always there to help everybody who needed it,” Ana Mary Arias said. “Everybody who needed it, family or not, and he was big on his family of law enforcement. He came from a small family and he always told me that he was part of a big family. It is his law enforcement family.”
Ana Mary Arias also described her husband as being like a father to her two children and an avid gamer. In fact, she said, many people thought he was their biological father.
“I have no words for the loss,” she said. “When you hear people say that he was a great guy, believe it.”
As Arias tries to make sense of her beloved husband’s unexpected death, she said she will cherish the unconditional love he was always there to give.
“He would hug me and tell me, ‘Don’t worry baby, we are going to grow old together, we’re gonna do this’” she said, through tears.
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