Trader Joe's security guard struck by hit-and-run driver in parking lot

David Miller says he suffered broken foot, multiple herniated discs in spine

PINECREST, Fla. – A security guard spoke to Local 10 News reporter Ian Margol on Tuesday, two weeks after he said he was struck by a hit-and-run driver. 

The incident occurred June 10 outside a Trader Joe's in Pinecrest.

David Miller said the incident was the result of a dispute over a parking space. 

He said the driver was unhappy when he wasn't allowed to pull in where he wanted to and drove through the security guard instead.

Miller said his pain is constant and debilitating. 

"It's just nonstop. I can't even pick up my 5-year-old anymore," he said. 

Miller, who is a military veteran, now works as a security guard at the Trader Joe's across from downtown Dadeland.

He was working his shift June 10, directing traffic in the parking lot, and everything was normal, he said, until a man in a white Hyundai Sonata pulled in and started yelling at him, claiming he didn't have to listen to Miller's instructions.

"I heard it. I turned around, like, facing you. He hit me with his car, going through the cones," Miller said.

The man ended up bumping Miller with his car multiple times.

Miller yelled for someone to call 911 and the driver accelerated at him again. 

Surveillance video shows Miller holding on to the hood of the car, being carried across the parking lot.

"He picks up speed to go make the right and, as he's making the right turn out, I get thrown off the hood," Miller said. 

The driver sped off, but not before Miller caught a picture of his license plate.

Police are now searching for the person behind the wheel and Miller said he’s just trying to go day by day.

"(I) can barely walk, can barely sit. Everything I do hurts, so how am I supposed to try to survive? It's ridiculous," he said. 

According to Miller and his attorneys, he has multiple herniated discs in his spine, a broken foot and torn ligaments in his foot and ankle -- all of which will require surgeries.

"This one person's act has caused a downward spiral in David's life that we don't know if he's ever going to get out of," Miller's attorney, Judd Rosen, said. 

Anyone with information about the driver's identity is asked to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.