DeSantis schedules execution of north Miami cop killer

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant Friday for inmate Ricardo Gonzalez, who killed a North Miami Beach police officer during a 1992 bank robbery. Gonzalez, 56, is one of four who robbed the Kislak National Bank of a cash box from a drive-thru teller. He is set to die by lethal injection Dec. 1 at Florida State Prison. With executions scheduled for Thursday and Nov. 19, Gonzalez is in line to be the 21st inmate executed by the state this year. Florida’s Department of Corrections conducted 19 executions last year, the most by the state for a single year since the U.S. Supreme Court ended a moratorium on executions in 1976. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, 32 prisoners have been executed in six states Florida, Texas, Alabama, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Arizona this year. Texas is the next highest at seven. According to court records, Gonzales fired the gun that resulted in the death of North Miami Beach Police Officer Steven Bauer on Jan. 3, 1992.