MIAMI (WSVN) - A man was taken into custody in Miami following a high-speed chase that may have been linked to an armed carjacking in downtown Fort Lauderdale.
Cellphone video posted by Only in Dade captured a stretch of police cruisers, as officers tried to apprehend the subject, late Saturday night.
According to Fort Lauderdale Police, a subject armed with a handgun stole a BMW along the 1300 block of East Las Olas Boulevard, at around 11 p.m.
The victim, Jonathan Samerene, said he was inside the Kavasutra Kava Bar for about three minutes when he noticed his car being stolen.
“When she was trying to shake me off, I wasn’t going to let go at that point because I knew it would hurt if I fell,” he said.
He said he had stopped to grab a drink before heading to his brother’s house before the fateful decision turned from something social to something dangerous.
“As I was paying, I had my car parked, you could see it through the window. When I was going to pay, I noticed my car was being reversed,” Samarene said.
Surveillance footage shows a woman getting inside of Samarene’s car and taking off.
He said he ran out of the establishment, but the carjacker pulled out a gun and fled the scene with the vehicle.
“So I ran outside, and that’s when I jumped on the hood of the vehicle,” he said. “They took me for a ride down Las Olas Boulevard heading east.”
He clung to his car for a while until another driver, who he believed was working with the car thief, pulled up next to them.
“That’s when there was another vehicle that was, like tailing them, working with them or whatever, pulled up next to my car. That’s when he pulled out his gun, and he pointed it at me and told me to get off the hood, so I jumped off,” Samerene said.
Samerene called police, and they caught up with the car, which led police south on Interstate 95 and into Miami-Dade County.
Officers in Miami tried to cut off the red BMW as it weaved through the streets.
The pursuit ended near Northwest 38th Street and 19th Avenue, where police took the man into custody without incident.
Cameras captured Robinson Garrido Diaz as he sat handcuffed on the ground in front of the stolen vehicle.
“They identified the car pretty quickly, so that’s why they went on a chase all the way from here to Miami, Samarene said.
Garrido Diaz now faces charges of armed carjacking, aggravated assault with a weapon and fleeing and eluding.
Police are still on the hunt for a woman who they said was involved.
“Video like the police chase and him running away is, like, crazy,” Samarene said. “The fact that he was actually doing that in my car, that’s stuff that I saw on the news growing up, and I never thought that it’d be my car in a high-speed chase on the news with a helicopter following it. I gotta deal with my insurance and figure out a car I can drive until that situation’s resolved, so… But it could’ve been a lot worse, so I’m pretty thankful.”
If you have any information about the woman who stole Samarene’s BMW from the Kavastura Kava Bar parking lot, call Broward County Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS. Remember, you can always remain anonymous, and you may be eligible for a reward of up to $5,000.
Copyright 2024 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.