HOLLYWOOD, FLA. (WSVN) - An 11-year-old girl is speaking out about the heart-stopping moments when, she said, she was robbed at gunpoint while walking home from school in Hollywood, and investigators have linked the incident to another armed robbery and a police chase.
The victim, who asked not to be identified or show her face on camera, said a car pulled up next to her along Buchanan Street, Tuesday afternoon.
Before she knew it, she said, she came face-to-face with a loaded firearm.
“The passenger came out of the car, and at that point I saw the gun,” she said.
The victim said she was suddenly overcome by fear.
“My first thought was, ‘I feel like I’m going to get killed,'” she said.
But the schoolgirl said that ended up not being the subjects’ intent.
“They said, ‘We can do this the easy way,'” she said. “The person snatched my phone from my hand, gets in the car and drives off.”
Just before her frightening ordeal, police linked the armed subject’s getaway car, a white four-door Chrysler, to another armed robbery in Pembroke Pines where, investigators said, he stole a phone as well.
Hours after Tuesday’s robbery, detectives traced the Chrysler to a home in Miramar. When they went there to approach the subject, they said, he took off, tried to hit a police officer and led them on a high-speed chase.
That chase spanned two counties, from Broward all the way into Miami-Dade.
Police said the driver came to a crashing stop near Northeast 163rd Street and Seventh Avenue in Northeast Miami Dade, bailed out of the vehicle and took off running.
7SkyForce HD hovered above the scene as units from multiple agencies swarmed the area, even using K-9s to help hunt him down.
Authorities eventually caught the suspect, who was later identified as Ariel Garcia. They later arrested a 17-year-old also linked to the armed robberies.
The young victim said she’s had panic attacks after the robbery, but the arrests have restored her sense of security, knowing their crime spree days are hopefully over.
“Because I know it’s not going to happen to somebody else, and I don’t want anybody to get killed,” she said.
Charges for both suspects are still pending.
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