MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — A man from central Florida is facing multiple criminal charges in Miami-Dade County after police said he killed two tourists crossing the street in Miami Beach in a hit-and-run Wednesday night.
Investigators said a witness chased driver Adan Negron-Morris, 42, of Lakeland, into a drugstore and held him for police after the wreck.
Officials with the Miami Beach Police Department said Sarisa Kongduang, 22, and Greatgomon Laowatdhanasapya, 24, were crossing Collins Avenue at 73rd Street on North Beach just after 9:05 p.m. when Negron-Morris, speeding and with no headlights on, hit the two.
“Both pedestrians were launched in the air and suffered serious bodily injuries landing on the roadway several feet from the point of impact,” a police report states. “(His) vehicle suffered extensive front end damage and the hood was bent upward into the windshield.”
Police said Negron-Morris didn’t stop until his 2013 Nissan Sentra became disabled near 74th Street.
Authorities said he then ran into the Walgreens at 7340 Collins Ave., but a witness followed him in and “detained” him, pointing Negron-Morris out to arriving officers.
Medics took Kongduang and Laowatdhanasapya to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center, where doctors pronounced them dead. Police said they were visiting from Indiana.
Police said they soon found out that shortly before the deadly crash, Negron-Morris had been in another hit-and-run at 71st Street and Bay Drive on Normandy Isle.
They said an officer saw the Negron-Morris fleeing and tried to chase after him, but lost sight of him just moments before he would kill the two visitors.
“The justification given by the driver was he ‘wanted to kill himself,’ so he closed his eyes (and) accelerated,” MBPD Officer Christopher Bess, an agency spokesperson, said Thursday. “Unfortunately, he didn’t kill himself. He killed two innocent lives last night.”
Authorities said surveillance video confirmed that Negron-Morris was speeding, saying it showed him driving “through two separate intersections, disregarding steady red traffic signals without slowing or stopping, nearly causing collisions with other vehicles” in wet, slippery conditions.
The report stated that it wasn’t conclusive whether Negron-Morris was under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time. Staff conducted multiple blood draws on him as he was being medically cleared at Mount Sinai Medical Center, it states.
“A DUI investigation was initiated,” Bess said. “We believe that he was under the influence of a narcotic substance. What we do is, even though his confession was he ‘wanted to kill himself,’ two young, innocent lives were taken last night.”
Police arrested Negron-Morris on two counts each of reckless vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of a crash causing death.
He was being held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center as of Thursday afternoon, where he was pictured in his mugshot bearing various tattoos.
One pair, with one word inscribed above each eyebrow, reads “F--- Love.”
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