ORLANDO, Fla. — A 92-year-old “dancing” grandma, whose verve often kept her out late on Saturday nights, had her life cut short in an early morning weekend crash caused by an Orlando police officer who drove through a red light.

A preliminary accident report, prepared by Orlando Police and provided by the family, said the “at fault” vehicle was the police vehicle. Orlando Police publicly acknowledged a traffic homicide investigation involving their officer in a press release, but offered no details, to “preserve the integrity” of their investigation.

The family of Milagros “Millie” Ortiz, who died Monday at Orlando Regional Medical Center, consulted with a lawyer Wednesday. Their mother acted much younger than her age, her daughters said.

She’d spent Saturday night as she usually did with her “bingueras” — a group of friends who met weekly for an evening of food, fun and games of Bingo. “They’re like a big family,” said daughter Judy Santiago, 64. “Many women with their husbands and some, of course, not with husbands.”

Ortiz headed home after 1 a.m. Sunday morning in a car driven by a neighbor. As their 2016 Jeep Patriot headed south on S. Semoran Blvd. toward a green light at Hoffner Avenue, it was struck by a police cruiser at 1:48 a.m.

A witness said the cruiser had stopped at a red light at Semoran which “was taking a long time to switch.” Then, suddenly, the red and blue lights of the police vehicle flipped on and the vehicle drove through the intersection, the witness said. As it did so, it turned off its emergency lights.

“Video of the crash corroborated” the witness statement, the accident report said. The cruiser “was at fault for the collision due to failure to yield right of way.”

The report identified the driver of the cruiser as Andrew McKuhen, 28.

The details of the accident were first reported by WESH Channel 2.

Asked about McKuhen’s work status, an Orlando police spokesperson would not say.

Orlando police officers have been involved in multiple dangerous driving situations leading to deadly crashes in the last few years.

In February 2023, 28-year-old Delmy Alvarez, a mother of two was killed after an out-of-policy police pursuit in Parramore ended with the suspect running a red light on West Anderson Street and smashing into her car as she moved into the intersection. In early 2025, the victim was 56-year-old Gerald Neal, a pedestrian who was run over twice as an unmarked police truck chased a vehicle in Holden Heights over an unreadable license plate. That chase also failed to meet the requirements of OPD’s pursuit policy.

In both cases OPD originally obscured its officers’ roles in the crashes.

On Wednesday, Ortiz’ family grieved her passing in an interview with the Orlando Sentinel. They recalled the joy of her Saturday night gatherings.

Every week, someone different would host. They’d cook. They’d eat. They’d laugh. They’d play Bingo.

Sometimes, the group numbered 50 or more.

Sometimes, the gatherings had a theme. Once they had pajama night where everyone came in sleepwear.

Milagros was the group’s matriarch, Santiago said. At 92, the eldest of the bunch, she seemed the youngest at heart, she said.

“She was like the teen-ager,” said another daughter Evelyn Alicea , 71, who shared a home with Ortiz about 10 miles southwest of Orlando International Airport.

Sometimes she’d leave home at 5 in the evening and return at 5 in the morning. Alicea said she always left a light on for her.

“We used to tell her, we love that you’re out with friends and playing Bingo, but we never liked the idea of them being out so late on the road, you know,” she said. “I always thought…I always told her, there’s so many drunk drivers out there at those late hours.”

Judy Santiago said her mother brushed off their concerns.

“We were always scolding her for that, and she would just say, ‘I think you girls forgot who the mom is here!’ ”

“We worried, of course,” Alicea said. “But never, ever in the world, would I have thought it would be a police officer to blame.”

The sisters and their brother, Antonio “Tony” Ortiz Jr, said they called lawyers to ensure the officer is held accountable.

“We want to know what happened and why,” Evelyn Alicea said.

Milagros Ortiz, widowed in 2011 after the death of Antonio, her husband of 58 years, was the mother of three daughters and a son; 10 grandchildren; 18 great-grandchildren; two great-great-grandchildren; and was eagerly awaiting the birth of a third, her family said.

The sisters shared a video of their mother dancing at a party last month.

“She definitely wasn’t ready to go, you know, and not like the way she went,” Santiago said. “She didn’t go, I think. She was taken from us…He robbed us from having her longer, even if it was just another month or two or probably more. He robbed us of that.”

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