(WSVN) - An SUV was on a crash course into parked cars outside a South Florida apartment complex. Three weeks later, no one has been arrested, but new evidence could change that. Here’s Karen Hensel with tonight’s 7 Investigates.
It was just before 10:30 on a Tuesday night in November when surveillance cameras captured a Ford Explorer crashing into view.
Neighbor: “I was sitting in my living room, like right in front of the parking lot, and then, all of a sudden, I heard a big noise, big ‘boom!'”
The SUV hits barricade poles and briefly goes airborne before slamming into parked cars.
The crash at an apartment complex in Fort Lauderdale’s Melrose Park neighborhood brought residents running outside.
Resident in surveillance video: “Oh, my God! Somebody just hit our [expletive] car.”
But that somebody was not arrested or even ticketed that night, leaving residents floored and frustrated with the police investigation.
Neighbor: “Still now we have no justice. We’re just sitting here waiting.”
Neighbor in cellphone video: “Hey bro, you can’t leave. I cannot let you leave. I promise you, I cannot let you leave.”
After the wreck, neighbors are seen talking to a man who was in the SUV.
Neighbor in cellphone video: “Bro, you need to sit down. You need to sit down, you’re bleeding. You have head trauma. Just sit and relax.”
Marcus Mathis, neighbor: “He told us that there was a rabbit in the road. That was the first thing he told us, a white rabbit.”
Within seconds of the crash, a person is seen walking away from the SUV.
Minutes later, a picture shows someone wearing similar clothes in the front seat. But the man talking to neighbors is heard saying he was not alone in the car.
Man from SUV in cellphone video: “Listen, this girl, she just jumped out the car.”
As two Fort Lauderdale Police officers talk with the man, one holds a plastic bag with a white substance inside.
Marcus Mathis: “They pulled him to the side. Everyone tried to tell them what happened, but it was more along the lines of they really didn’t want to hear it — honest.”
Brooklyn Cooper, neighbor: “They didn’t take him to jail. They let him walk; they let him go home.”
Neighbor: “And after that, the cops didn’t even talk to us. All they did, they left the scene and gave us a case number.”
Three weeks later, cars here are still damaged, and no one has been charged or even issued a traffic ticket.
So we took neighbors’ concerns to Fort Lauderdale Police.
Detective Ali Adamson, FLPD: “So I can understand their frustration, without a doubt.”
We asked Detective Ali Adamson whether the investigation was handled properly.
Detective Ali Adamson: “I believe that the investigating officer on scene was met with some challenges.”
One of those challenges, she says, was not having what they call a “wheel witness,” someone who could identify the driver at the time of the crash.
According to the report, the man told police he was the front passenger, and his girlfriend “was driving too fast and crashed.”
The officer wrote, witnesses said several people “got out of the vehicle and ran” … “and there was no independent witness who could identify” the driver.
But now, based on videos officers received after the night of the crash, Adamson says this about the man in the SUV.
Detective Ali Adamson: “I think you could really classify him as either a person of interest or a suspect. In my opinion, he’s definitely somebody worth — based off of the new evidence that we have now — considering, is this person the driver?”
Police have not yet tested the white substance. That may happen, as investigators try to determine who was behind the wheel.
Adamson is hopeful the new videos provided to 7 Investigates and police will offer new clues.
Detective Ali Adamson: “It’s an active investigation now.”
Adamson points to a car with its lights on at the time of the crash. Police are hoping, if someone was inside the car and saw something, that person will come forward.
Meanwhile, four people who had cars wrecked continue to wait.
Marcus Mathis: “To me, I feel like no justice was served that night. I couldn’t go to work that night or the day after because I had no transportation after that.”
Neighbor: “I’m still upset. It’s a brand-new car I just bought. I never got to drive it.”
Brooklyn Cooper: “I’m furious. I don’t have a car.”
No cars, and so far, no answers.
Fort Lauderdale Police say, if you have any information about this crash, to please call them directly at 954-828-5477 or Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS.
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