Jul 10, 2009 11:01 pm US/Eastern
Fmr. Miami Police Captain Shot To Death At Marina
61-Year-Old Robert Yee, 26 Years In The Force, Retired 1995
Veteran Officer Had Survived Being Shot As A Cop
Shooter's Car: Newer Model Toyota, Tag X50 0IJ


As a Miami police officer, Robert R. Yee survived 26 years on the mean streets of the city, but he could not survive the volley of bullets that struck him at point blank range Friday afternoon at a Marina on the Miami River.

Yee, who retired as a Captain from the Miami force in 1995, was murdered in broad daylight about 12:45 Friday afternoon at the Hurricane Cove Marina on Northwest North River Drive where he worked as the boatyard manager.

Miami City Commissioner Angel Gonzalez, who had known Yee since he was a rookie on the police department, came to the scene when learning of his long time friend's death.

"A gray car pulled in to the parking lot, he walked up to the car, he got shot, and the car sped off," Gonzalez told CBS4 reporter Gary Nelson. "We don't know what it was about, what the motive might have been."

Sources told CBS4 News Yee was shot "execution," style, as if the shooting was a "hit" of some sort. Sources said the victim was shot several times, twice in the head.

A golf cart that Yee used to get around the sprawling marina property was parked in the middle of a paved area, feet from where he fell. He was pronounced dead at Jackson Memorial Hospital's Ryder Trauma center.

About two hours after the shooting, police issued a BOLO (be on the lookout) for a late model, silver-gray Toyota Corolla with Florida license plate X50 0IJ. The driver was described as a very short white male, with short, balding hair and a goatee. Miami homicide chief John Buhrmaster declined to comment on the investigation, but stressed the importance of locating the vehicle, believed to have been used in the slaying.

Yee had a storied and at times heroic career with the police department, surviving a slug from a robber's gun during a 1978 Burger King robbery on Flagler street.

"He was an excellent person and outstanding officer," Gonzalez said. "We really were very proud of him."

The Yee family had endured an earlier tragedy, the murder of his daughter eight years ago. The burned body of Diana Yee was found in a torched car in North Miami-Dade in June of 2001. Her boyfriend was charged with killing her in a dispute over a child they had together. He is serving life in prison.

Law enforcement runs in the Yee family. He has another daughter who is an officer with the Doral police department.

Armando Aguilar, the president of the Fraternal Order of Police, and a colleague of Yee's for many years, was among those who gathered at the murder scene Friday along the gritty Miami river. "He was a solid, clean cop," Aguilar said of Yee. "It was heroic, the things he did."
Reporting
Gary Nelson CBS4