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Congratulations to Sergeant Cuong “Ted” Nguyen, recipient of the City of Coral Gables “Officer of the Month Award,” for the month of October 2020.
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ACTION/RECOMMENDATION:
I nominate Sergeant Ted Nguyen for Officer of the Month for October 2020.
BACKGROUND:
On the following dates: 9/30/2020, 10/05/2020, 10/ 10/2020, and 10/15/2020, there have been four bank robberies during the same afternoon time frame in Coral Gables. In each incident, the offender, who was wearing a face covering because of COVID-19 protocols, would pass a note demanding money to the bank tellers. The FBI's Violent Crimes Task Force responded to take the primary role in investigating these crimes and CGPD Crimes Against Person's Unit responded to assist with the investigations. The FBI Task Force advised CGPD that their investigation led them to a suspect who is currently on probation for bank robbery and who had recently been released from prison. Their suspect closely matched the physical description of our bank robber and had similarly utilized notes demanding money passed to bank tellers in the past to facilitate the commission of his crimes.
Sergeant Nguyen supervises the Crimes Against Persons Unit, which one of their many responsibilities includes investigating robberies. Sergeant Nguyen recognized a pattern that the bank robber would attempt
to rob a bank every five days and Sergeant Nguyen observed from the bolo photographs that although the clothing the offender wore to commit the robberies was different in each incident, the offender appeared to be wearing the same black shoes with white color soles in all of the incidents. On 10/20/2020, Sergeant Nguyen decided to act and enlisted the assistance of Detective McKee to conduct a mobile surveillance of the Coral Gables downtown area banks during the afternoon hours. Sergeant Nguyen was driving his unmarked police vehicle at the 200 block of Alhambra Circle when he observed a male wearing a dark shirt/shorts, like what th...
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