Police1 Staff Report
(MIRAMAR, Fla.) -- Visitation of family members and a viewing will be held today for a detective who died in an apparent suicide on Dec. 31.
Christopher Miele, 31, possibly distraught over the divorce from his wife a year earlier, died from an apparent gunshot wound to the chest, according to police.
He called an officer, who was also his friend, on his radio about 11 p.m. on Saturday and told him that he was thinking about killing himself.
The officer tried to keep him talking while he sped to Miele’s home.
“The officer kept him on the phone and began driving over to his home,” police spokesman Officer Bill Robertson told the Miami Herald. “He kept talking to him and tried to talk him out of it.”
When the officer finally arrived, however, it was too late. Miele was pronounced dead at 11:53 p.m. at the Broward General Medical Center.
``Detective Miele was one of our best officers,’' Miramar Police Chief Melvin Standley told the Herald. ``He was extremely well-liked and popular and the department, the city and the community he worked for will greatly miss him.’'
Miele had received several awards for meritorious service. He had joined the department out of admiration for his father, a New York police officer.
The viewing will be held today from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Baxley-Wiley Funeral Home at 1390 North Courtney Parkway in Merritt Island. Funeral services will take place tomorrow at 10:30 Devine Mercy Catholic Church at 1940 North Courtney Parkway in Merritt Island.