Earlier this week a man involved in a police chase after a car accident was shot and killed by a Miami-Dade police officer. The shooting brought an end to a chain of events that began when the 28-year-old man crashed the car he was initially driving into another vehicle.
At 6:40 a.m., the Dodge Charger the man was driving ran into a taxi cab. The accident killed the taxi driver and injured his wife who was a passenger in the front seat. Following the collision the man left the Dodge and ran to get away from the police. One police officer chasing the man jumped out of his car to pursue the man on foot and left his car idling. At some point the 28-year-old man got into the patrol car and drove off starting a high speed chase. When he was cornered by another police officer, instead of surrendering as the officer ordered, the man in the patrol car reportedly attempted to run the officer down. At that point, the police officer, who has been on the force for 22 years, fired his gun at the man.
According to the police, the man died in the patrol car after crashing it into a fence.
The passengers in the taxi and Dodge were both injured. The man’s 31-year-old girlfriend who he left in the Dodge after the initial accident and the taxi driver’s wife were transported to Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital. The former was in stable condition and the latter in critical condition.
Source: The Miami Herald, “Police shoot, kill man who stole police cruiser,” Walt Michot and David Ovalle, Oct. 10, 2011