MIAMI BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) - Police said they took two men into custody after a rideshare at gunpoint led to an hours-long SWAT standoff in the heart of South Beach’s entertainment district. That rideshare driver is speaking out on what occurred.
Atilio Bellanza said he had a terrifying Tuesday night when the two men jumped in his car and demanded that he continue driving.
“They were slapping my face and yelling at me, trying to make me take them to a different location,” Bellanza said in Spanish.
The ride, according to Bellanza, began in Bay Harbor Islands and ended in Miami Beach.
During the ride, Bellanza said he wasn’t able to focus on the drive because of the commotion in the backseat.
“A lot of things were going through my head. I also thought about just leaving the car running. But it’s the only thing I have to make income for my family,” he said.
With his family in mind, the driver told responding officers that he “wanted to jump out of the moving vehicle due to how scared he was. [He] did not do so because he feared being shot,” according to the report.
Miami Beach Police and their SWAT team showed up at a condominium building along the 1400 block of Ocean Drive, just after 1 a.m. on Wednesday, hours after the scary drive, to arrest the men.
Cameras captured one of the subjects with his hands up as SWAT officers with long guns took him into custody.
“Seeing the SWAT team show up, fully armed, you’re like, ‘What is really going on in here?’ You know, so, yeah, it was crazy,” said visitor Andrew Galicia.
However, investigators said, the second subject barricaded himself inside a second-floor unit.
“And then we go outside, and we see like three police officers, and [they said], ‘You gotta move, you gotta move.’ We were like ‘whoa, whoa,'” said Galicia.
In an effort to ensure everyone was safe, SWAT officers evacuated everyone from the building and from the surrounding area during this standoff.
Dozens of visitors were forced out of their vacation rentals until around 3 a.m.
“Then they were knocking on the door, saying that we had to evacuate,” said Tierra Esquerre.
Ethan Sewall, who was staying nearby with his family, described to 7News what he saw as he returned from dinner.
“At first, it was not – we didn’t think much of it, and then it just kept getting longer and longer, and the police kept pushing everybody back farther, so not too worried, but definitely a little bit concerned,” he said. “We saw a family got pulled out; they were more shook up. They were asleep, and they got pulled out by the police.”
It was a frustrating way for visitor Andres Mujica to kick off his vacation.
“I arrived after running the Boston Marathon, 11 p.m., tired as hell, and everything was blocked,” he said.
Galicia learned he would have to wait longer than anticipated to return to his rental.
“I was like, ‘Oh, it’ll only be a few hours,’ and then we come back at like 2 a.m., and then there’s – the whole road’s blocked off,” said Galicia.
As for Mujica, he dished out a couple of hundred dollars to stay at another hotel instead of his rental.
“Yeah, because I needed to sleep, and I wasn’t going to wait for them to clear out the situation,” he said.
Hours later, the second subject was taken into custody without incident.
The suspects were identified as 22-year-old Ashton Montanez and 25-year-old Jefferson Mesidor.
The investigation went on for hours, well into Wednesday morning, as crime scene technicians and detectives combed every inch of the room where the subject had barricaded himself. They took several bags of evidence that will hopefully tell them more about what exactly happened.
“It’s always interesting around here,” said Galicia.
In bond court on Wednesday, both men appeared in front of Judge Mindy S. Glazer.
During the proceeding, prosecutors revealed that a gun was never found and that the driver told police he thought he saw a gun.
“And in terms of the gun, as of yet, I do not believe any gun has been recovered,” said a prosecutor.
Additionally, prosecutors said that the suspects had legally booked the ride and that there had been a language barrier as the driver didn’t understand what his passengers were saying.
Ultimately, Glazer found probable cause only for resisting arrest without violence and said there was not enough evidence to support the initial charge of kidnapping.
“Alternate bond, it’s $500, so make sure you keep all future court dates, OK? You’re presumed not guilty,” said Glazer.
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