MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Two people were injured in an early-morning crash Thursday after an altercation that started at a nearby sports bar, police said.
A car could be seen resting on its side, pressed against a palm tree, near the intersection of Northwest Seventh Avenue and Northwest 108th Street.
Miami-Dade police said a group of women got into an argument at Round Table Sports Bar & Lounge in Miami shortly before the crash.
Friends of one of the victims said the argument was over a jukebox.
According to an arrest report, the argument spilled into the parking lot, where the two groups were separated by security.
As the victim left the bar, James Raimondi, 25, who was with one of the groups of women involved in the argument, followed the car and intentionally rear-ended it before fleeing the scene, police said.
A passenger in the front seat was ejected and taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital's Ryder Trauma Center in critical condition. A passenger in the back seat was taken to North Shore Medical Center. The driver was treated at the scene.
"The lady was screaming -- I mean, real loud, for like 15 minutes, 'Help me, help me,'" witness William Tidwell, who works nearby, said.
The driver's friend told Local 10 News that the driver's mother was the passenger who was ejected from the car.
"She's just shaken up, thinking about her mom," the man, identified only as Albert, said. "That was her mom that flew out of the car. When I came up, she was on the ground and there was a tree on top of her."
According to the arrest report, Raimondi drove home after crashing into the other car and told the women he was with that the victims, "Got what they deserved."
Police said one of the women he was with, Anna Raimondi, returned to the crash site and told officers about what happened.
Police later located the other car at James Raimondi's home, where the suspect was arrested.
Detectives said Raimondi claimed that the victim had brake checked him, causing him to crash into her vehicle.
He said he didn't stop after the crash, because he believed the victims had a gun in their car, authorities said.
Raimondi faces charges of attempted second-degree murder, leaving the scene of a crash involving serious bodily injury and aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer.
All northbound and southbound lanes of Northwest Seventh Avenue were closed in the area during the crash investigation.