MIAMI (WSVN) - Months after an SUV slammed into two university students near Brickell City Centre, police said they’ve captured the driver behind the hit-and-run collision.
City of Miami Police on Friday confirmed they have arrested 23-year-old Ameko Jacques in connection to the Dec. 18 crash that left the two friends seriously injured.
Graphic surveillance video shows what victims Ian Edelman and Jason Greenfield endured.
“We literally got run over by a large SUV from behind going confirmed over 50 miles per hour,” said Edelman.
Edelman and Greenfield were walking near a storefront at Brickell City Centre when Jacques’ Dodge Durango came flying from Southeast Seventh Street, plowing into both men.
Police said Jacques fled from his running SUV and left the wounded victims behind before he jumped into another vehicle that zoomed off from the scene.
An arrest warrant states that Jacques was “racing with other vehicles and lost control of the vehicle.”
He was found, arrested, and booked in Broward County only months after the crash.
The victims have since left the hospital and have been in recovery.
“It really was hell in the hospital,” said Edelman.
Edelman, a Columbia University dental student, spoke earlier this year about the crash that could have easily taken his life. Since then, he’s made big strides in getting back to life as he knew it.
7News was told Greenfield, a University of Miami medical student, has made significant physical progress as well.
Now, there’s legal progress in a case that had been unsolved since December and had rocked the worlds of two families.
“I definitely do feel lucky,” said Edelman.
“One moment everything is great, with a beautiful future, and the next moment, your whole life can be over just like that,” said Len Edelman, the victim’s father. “He’s alive. We’re just so fortunate that he’s alive.”
Jacques remains at the Broward Sheriff’s Office Jail. He also has a U.S. Marshal hold for being in possession of a machine gun.
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