On November 28, 1988, 34-year-old Metro-Dade Police Officer David Henry Strzalkowski and his partner Richard Boles were ambushed and fatally shot after responding to a call at a trailer park near Northeast 200th Street and West Dixie Highway in Miami. The call was allegedly a setup by Charlie Street, a paroled felon. Both officers died at the scene, a loss that deeply affected the department and the local community.

Officer Strzalkowski had joined the department in 1982. Charlie Street was arrested, charged, tried, convicted of the murders, and received life without parole. Strzalkowski’s name appears on the National Law Enforcement Memorial in Washington, D.C.