MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – A man accused of leading Miami Beach police on a chase after stealing a car, resulting in a crash that left a woman dead, has been arrested.
Timothy Bowers, 35, faces charges of grand theft, resisting an officer without violence and cocaine possession. He was booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center early Wednesday.
Officer Ernesto Rodriguez, a spokesman for the Miami Beach Police Department, said the man stole a blue BMW just after 11 p.m. Monday from the area of 74th Street and Collins Avenue while the owner was inside a store.
Rodriguez said an officer was pursuing the stolen car when the officer's SUV collided with a car driven by Ivonne Reyes. The 68-year-old woman was killed in the crash and the officer was seriously hurt.
The stolen car was later spotted by other officers and followed into Surfside, where the BMW rammed into two police cruisers and sped away.
Bowers was eventually apprehended after he was found sitting in the passenger seat of a blue Nissan Versa that was being driven by Richard Wallace.
Police said Wallace, 35, of Memphis, Tennessee, was also taken into custody because he had a warrant out for his arrest on charges of marijuana and cocaine possession. Police said cocaine, Xanax and marijuana were also found inside the car.
According to a police report, a witness identified Bowers as the man who was driving the stolen BMW. Police said the owner of the car, Juan Quintero, left his keys in the ignition.
Quintero told Local 10 News reporter Glenna Milberg that he left his keys in the car because he believed he was in a good area.
"Right now, I'm sad because somebody died," he said.
Reyes was an employee at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach hotel.
"Our entire team is devastated by this terrible news and our hearts go out to her family," a Fontainebleau spokeswoman said in a statement Wednesday.