MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Southwest 162nd Avenue is where “Echy”'s dreams came true.
That’s what Miami-Dade Police Department Director Freddy Ramirez said Monday, after renaming a stretch of the road after fallen detective Cesar “Echy” Echaverry.
The portion of street is now known as “Officer Cesar ‘Echy’ Echaverry Jr. Way.”
“When you look at 162nd Avenue, you see action,” Ramirez said. “You see a man that gave it all.”
Echaverry, part of MDPD’s Robbery Intervention Detail, was shot Aug. 15 in Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood while trying to capture a robbery suspect out of Dania Beach and died two days later.
The Hialeah native and five-year veteran of the force was remembered as a gentle soul with a brave heart.
“Our county is safer today because of Officer Echaverry and his selflessness because of a sacrifice that we will never, ever forget,” Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said.
Echaverry’s fiancée, Stephanie Vargas, was in attendance for the renaming ceremony. She said the street, located in the Kendall West area, holds special significance for Echaverry.
It’s near his former school, Ferguson High School, and it’s a street he traveled on every day.
“The street itself is extremely meaningful, as it was the main way to his daily routines,” Vargas said. “Gym, church, my house.”
Vargas said the dedication will “never ease the pain of his passing.”
“His death left us all with an emptiness no memorial could ever fill,” she said.
Echaverry’s family received two flags during the ceremony: one flown over the U.S. Capitol and another flown over the Florida Capitol.