A Miami-Dade police officer fatally shot a man who stole a colleague’s car in Northwest Miami-Dade. The 28-year-old suspect died behind the wheel of the stolen patrol car early Monday, according to police and union officials, but not before he:
• Crashed his gray Dodge Charger into a taxi cab about 6:40 a.m., killing the 55-year-old driver and seriously injuring the cabbie’s 62-year-old wife in the passenger seat.
• Ditched the Charger at the scene, running to the parking lot of nearby Northshore Medical Center, 1100 NW 95th St., as police scrambled to find the man.
• Ran from a Miami-Dade police officer, who gave chase on foot in the hospital parking lot. The man doubled around and stole the officer’s idling green-and-white patrol car. At one point in the confrontation, the police officer fired a shot at him.
• Tried running over Miami-Dade Officer David Williams, who cornered the stolen car after a high-speed chase at Northwest 91st Street and 18th Avenue, according to the officer’s attorney.
Williams, a 22-year veteran, had gotten out of his car and ordered the man to surrender to no avail, said his attorney, Teri Guttman Valdes, of the Professional Law Enforcement Association.
“My client was ordering him to exit the vehicle and he tried to run [Williams] down. My client had no alternative but to fire at him,” Guttman Valdes said.
After the shots were fired, the man lost control of the police car and crashed into a fence, according to Miami-Dade police. He died inside the vehicle, police said.
The department on Monday had not identified the dead suspect. His 31-year-old girlfriend stayed behind in the Charger that had crashed with the taxi. She was taken to Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital, where she was later listed in stable condition.
The taxi driver’s wife was also taken to the trauma center in critical condition.
No comments:
Post a Comment