MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Police said they arrested a caregiver in southwest Miami-Dade’s Leisure City area on a manslaughter charge Sunday after he told officers his attempt to restrain an 80-year-old man turned deadly.
According to the Miami-Dade Police Department, Joan L. Ramos, 45, waited hours to report the man’s death to authorities.
An MDPD arrest report states that officers responded to Ramos’ home in the 15000 block of Leisure Drive at around 9:20 a.m. after receiving a report of a battery with injuries; they would soon find the elderly victim lying unresponsive on the bedroom floor.
By then, police said he had been dead for about eight hours.
The report states that Ramos, who had been caring for the man for about four years, told officers that he had heard a scream from the man’s bedroom at around 1 a.m. and went in to check on him.
Ramos told investigators that the man was being “combative” and grabbed his neck, leaving a scratch, leading him to grab the senior “in efforts to restrain him.”
That caused both men to fall and hit a nightstand, leaving the 80-year-old dead, the report states.
Police wrote in the report that Ramos said he waited hours to report the man’s death “due to his state of shock and realization of his actions.”
Ramos was “never in fear for his life or safety,” according to police.
A Miami-Dade judge found probable cause to charge Ramos with aggravated manslaughter on an elderly or disabled adult Monday, giving him a $15,000 bond.
Ramos remained held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center as of Monday afternoon.