MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. — Surveillance video and a witness’s video show the aftermath of a crash early Wednesday morning when Miami-Dade County Sheriff’s Office deputies went from chasing a 23-year-old suspect to saving his life.
Kevin Alvarez’s condition was critical after he crashed into a tree along Southwest 87th Avenue, at 50th Street, in Miami-Dade’s Olympia Heights neighborhood, just west of Tamiami Park, according to deputies.
6 p.m. report:
According to Detective Samantha Choon, a pursuit started when a deputy “observed a suspicious vehicle stopped in the roadway” at Southwest 37th Avenue and 16th Street, and “attempted to make contact” with Alvarez, who “struck the deputy’s vehicle and fled at a high rate of speed.”
Detective Angel Rodriguez, a spokesman for M-DCSO who was at the scene, said the pursuit stopped after a sergeant’s order before the crash. According to Choon, while a deputy followed the order, Alvarez “sideswiped” a M-DCSO vehicle again and fled.
“Shortly after, Mr. Alvarez lost control of his vehicle and collided with a tree,” Choon wrote in a news release.
A surveillance camera at a nearby home recorded the crash, and when M-DCSO deputies rushed to help get Alvarez out of a Nissan sedan. Max Menendez, who lives in the area, heard the impact and rushed out of his home.
“We see them get a fire extinguisher to try and put out the fire, and I come back out, a couple of minutes later, and it’s fully set ablaze. There’s a giant cloud of smoke in the sky,” said Menendez, who shared videos that he recorded with his phone.
Choon said Miami-Dade Fire Rescue personnel took Alvarez to a nearby hospital, where he was listed in critical condition. Deputies were not injured. Miami-Dade firefighters extinguished the fire.
M-DCSO traffic homicide detectives assumed the investigation. Deputies closed Galloway Road in both directions for hours after the crash.
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