Sunrise Police: Father, Daughter Plotted Murder Of Former Cop
SUNRISE (CBSMiami) – Sunrise Police say Michael Colon enlisted his teenage daughter and another man to kill Johnnie Ridgeway III earlier this month, inside Ridgeway's Sunrise home that he shared with his wife and Colon.
Ridgeway's wife spoke to CBS 4 News and asked us to conceal her identity. She said Colon is her nephew and she cannot believe he and his daughter are charged in this crime.
"I thought they loved him," she said.
Police believe Colon wanted Ridgeway dead because of bad blood. Ridgeway's wife says she believes it might have stemmed from an incident over the summer when one of Ridgeway's dogs injured Colon.
"He jumped up and grabbed onto Michael's hand," she said. "One he realized who he was holding onto, he let go but he had already damaged his finger. He required a lot of surgery and he was very angry about that."
However, she said everything seemed normal recently.
"Everything was fine," she said. "They were talking fine. They were getting along. My husband loved him like a son."
According to investigators, Colon had his daughter, Ridgeway said she's 17, pick up the gunman in Miami-Dade and drove him to the home in Sunrise where she knew the gunman planned to kill Ridgeway. The police report says "Investigation revealed Johnnie Ridgeway III was shot and killed while he was sleeping in his bed. There were no signs of forced entry and the residence was not ransacked in any way."
The arrest report says Colon's daughter told police she believes her father might have left the door unlocked when he left the morning of the murder. Colon's daughter told detectives about the plot, according to the police report. "(Daughter) further stated that the plan to murder Johnnie was constructed by her father, Michael Colon and his friend," the report says.
Johnnie Ridgeway III is a former Miami-Dade police officer. Federal court records show he pled guilty to a count of violation of civil rights in 1999. He was accused of sexual assault but his wife says he never did that and that he lived a clean, upstanding, hardworking life after a short stint in prison.
She cannot believe he's gone.
"We trusted someone in our home that we loved," she told CBS 4 News. "He opened his doors to him. I don't know why. I still don't understand."
Sunrise Police say there is another suspect they are working to arrest.
