BAL HARBOUR, Fla. — A police chase ended bizarrely in Bal Harbour on Friday after police say a driver led officers on a wrong-way pursuit in which he crashed into two squad cars, then ignored cops trying to get him out of his vehicle after he got stuck on the beach, putting on a patriotic display instead.
Orlando Pablo Taboada, 53, of Hialeah, is now facing several felony charges.
Bal Harbour police said the chase began just after 8 a.m. after authorities in nearby Bay Harbor Islands warned them of a driver headed the wrong way on 96th Street towards Bal Harbour.
Authorities said he entered Bal Harbour soon after, “at a high rate of speed, abruptly switching lanes and jumping curbs in a reckless and dangerous manner.”
An officer working a traffic post at Harding Avenue got in his cruiser and tried to pull Taboada over, an arrest report states. Authorities said he refused to pull over and kept speeding away, turning into oncoming traffic.
Taboada, police said, then maneuvered his vehicle into a “restricted area” that is “used by pedestrians walking along or visiting the beach” and is also a fenced construction site.
The report states that officers “quickly positioned their vehicles to restrict him from driving into areas with heavy pedestrian traffic” and as they ordered Taboada to get out of the car, he threw it into reverse and hit both a Bal Harbour and a Surfside police cruiser.
Police said officers continued to order Taboada to stop the vehicle and to open his door, but he continued to accelerate “despite being stuck in the sand.”
Officers smashed his windows, but instead of getting out of the car, he “instead smiled at officers while waiving (sic) his passport and American flag at them,” the report states.
Authorities said they pulled him out of the vehicle and had to use a Taser on him three times as he resisted arrest. They said they took Taboada to jail after having him medically cleared at Mount Sinai Medical Center.
Jail records show Taboada was ordered held without bond on six felony charges, including charges of aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer and fleeing and eluding at high speed.
As of Monday morning, he remained at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, jail records show.
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