The chief of public security for Miami-Dade County, Fla., was significantly wounded late on Sunday and was hospitalized in Tampa, the mayor of the county mentioned on Monday. The harm was brought on by a self-inflicted gunshot, in response to two folks with information of what occurred.

Alfredo Ramirez III, who serves in a twin function as public security chief and because the director of the Miami-Dade Police Department, the most important police division within the Southeast, was in “critical but stable condition” on Monday, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said in a statement. Her workplace mentioned that she traveled to Tampa in a single day to to be with the chief’s household.

The police division mentioned Chief Ramirez underwent surgical procedure there on Sunday night and once more on Monday afternoon.

“All that matters right now is Chief Ramirez’s well-being,” Ms. Levine Cava mentioned, “and I join his family, his loved ones, and all of his Miami-Dade Police Department and Miami-Dade County family in praying for his swift recovery.”

Chief Ramirez, 52, who is called Freddy, suffered the harm on Interstate 75 south of Tampa, in response to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which is investigating the incident together with the Florida Highway Patrol. No one else was injured, the F.D.L.E. mentioned in a press release.

Chief Ramirez was attending a summer time convention of the Florida Sheriffs Association, which started in Tampa on Sunday. The Tampa Police Department mentioned Monday afternoon that officers had responded to a report simply after 6:30 p.m. Sunday of a person with a gun exterior the downtown Marriott lodge the place the sheriffs have been assembly.

Officers “were provided thirdhand information alleging a male had pointed a gun at himself,” the division mentioned in a press release.

The man was recognized as Chief Ramirez. Officers went to the chief’s Twelfth-floor lodge room, the place he instructed them he had been concerned in an argument with a girl however “had not displayed a firearm,” the assertion by the Tampa police mentioned. “After additional questioning, Ramirez stated he had no intention to harm himself or others.”

The assertion mentioned the girl who had argued with Chief Ramirez additionally instructed the officers that “she did not have any concerns about her safety being in danger.” The Tampa police didn’t identify the girl within the assertion.

One of the folks with information of the incident confirmed stories by The Miami Herald, CBS Miami, NBC Miami and WPLG Local 10, an ABC News affiliate in Miami, that the chief was attending the convention in Tampa together with his spouse.

Chief Ramirez’s place as director of the Miami-Dade Police is appointed; he was chosen for the job by Ms. Levine Cava in January 2020. The division has greater than 4,700 workers and an working price range of greater than $850 million.

Following subsequent 12 months’s elections, the job will change to develop into an independently elected sheriff’s place, as it’s in Florida’s different 66 counties. Chief Ramirez filed paperwork in May to run for sheriff as a Democrat.

He has spent greater than 25 years with the division, in response to his official biography.

If you might be having ideas of suicide, name or textual content 988 to achieve the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/sources for a listing of further sources.

Kitty Bennett contributed analysis.