[chris]

Yessenia Sanchez pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree murder and aggravated stalking and was sentenced to 30 years in prison for shooting former Miami-Dade police officer Damian Colon in Hialeah, Florida, on November 4, 2022.

At about 6:30 a.m. that Friday, Sanchez, then 32, went to the home where Colon was staying in the 1200 block of West 79th Street. According to the criminal complaint, she got out of her vehicle with a firearm in an exterior holster, argued with Colon and fired a single shot that struck him in the head. Home security video shows Sanchez raising the gun to Colon's head and firing, then walking away as he collapses onto his back.

Colon was taken to the Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital in extremely critical condition and underwent surgery. He survived with serious brain injuries, required multiple surgeries and rehabilitation, and uses a wheelchair. Colon had served as a Miami-Dade police officer for 17 years.

Sanchez fled in a red pickup truck, crashed into several parked vehicles near Palm Avenue and East 45th Street, less than four miles from the shooting, and abandoned the truck before running and dropping her wallet. Hialeah police took her into custody that morning in the 600 block of East 45th Street. Detectives interviewed her for hours on November 4, 2022.

Investigators said Sanchez had tracked Colon electronically. The complaint states that she actively tracked the victim by electronic means, and authorities said spyware on his phone allowed her to follow his location. They also said she sent him GPS coordinates of his own whereabouts before the shooting. The surveillance video and tracking data formed the core of the case. She was charged with attempted first-degree murder with a deadly weapon, aggravated stalking, and leaving the scene of a crash.

Sanchez was a former Miami-Dade Schools Police officer and had been in a relationship with Colon for about seven years before it ended. Police said the relationship had a history of domestic violence. In September 2021, Sanchez was arrested on a domestic violence charge following an incident with Colon and resigned from the school district police department rather than be terminated.

On March 14, 2025, Sanchez, by then 35, pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree murder and aggravated stalking. She was sentenced the same day to 30 years in prison followed by 20 years of probation and ordered to have no contact with Colon. The disposition of the leaving-the-scene charge is not stated in the reporting located. Colon, who had retired from the agency, then reorganized as the Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office, told the court, "Justice is served, and I think she got what she deserved. I think she should have gotten more, but I'll take what she got." Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle described the shooting as an act of domestic violence. No appeal has been reported. The sentencing is the most recent development in the case.

The video is a police interview-room recording that runs about 55 minutes. It contains the interview itself and opens with a short narrated introduction naming the people involved.