Former Police Director Found Dead
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- Robert Parker, who rose through the ranks of the Miami Dade Police Department and became its first African-American director, was found dead late Wednesday at his home along the intracoastal.
Miami Dade Police confirmed the death but offered few details.
Investigators had cordoned off the area and were in the early stages of their investigation, they said.
Pastor Cecil Lamb, who was Parker's pastor, told CBS4's Jim DeFede that Parker's family noticed that he had gone missing around 7 p.m. Wednesday night.
"He wasn't answering his cell phone and they didn't know where he was," said Lamb, with the Spirit of Christ Center and Ministries.
He said between around 10 p.m., Parker's two sons found their father on the ground near a neighbor's house along the intracoastal canal.
"His sons started screaming for help," Pastor Lamb said. "I don't know what happened. I only know that his wife said they are treating it as a crime scene. And I said, `A crime scene?' And she said, `Yes.'"
"I don't know who would want to hurt him," Pastor Lamb said. "I mean he was out of the business."
Deborah Taylor, the daughter of longtime civil rights activist Georgia Ayers, said Parker was a man of true integrity who devoted his life to making the community better.
"He was always a peacemaker," said Taylor.
Parker was her daughter's godfather.
Parker spent 33 years with the Miami Dade PD before retiring in 2009. He was recently part of a team that was hired to review police procedures and practices in Baltimore following the riots in that city earlier this year.
