NORTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) - A suspect has been captured by police after a pursuit ended with him swimming into a canal and fleeing into a South Florida backyard.
Law enforcement later identified the suspect as 54-year-old Marc A. Anderson.
A Florida Highway Patrol trooper attempted to stop Anderson who is accused of ramming into a trooper in the area of Northwest 103rd Street and 32nd Avenue, Friday morning.
At some point, troopers lost sight of the vehicle and called for a Miami-Dade Police helicopter, which was able to locate the truck.
7Skyforce hovered over the scene where Anderson exited a white pickup and fled on foot in the area of Northwest Second Avenue, near South Biscayne River Drive.
During his escape, Anderson jumped into a nearby canal.
He then fled into a backyard.
Luis Fernandez lives in the neighborhood.
“Suddenly, I saw the chopper,” he said.
He took us through the unwelcome surprise he got when, he said, the wanted guy almost got into his yard.
“I see a guy swimming,” Fernandez said.
He said the suspect swam to the side of the canal where his property sits.
“He swam here,” he said.
He couldn’t get Fernandez’s back gate open, so he walked to other back yards before getting back in the water.
Both law enforcement agencies searched for the suspect with K-9 units.
Anderson was then seen again swimming through a canal.
7Skyforce hovered over the scene where dive teams surrounded Anderson and brought him to shore.
He is now in police custody.
A witness in the area saw the whole incident play out.
“We seen the helicopters, and then I see the car fly by,” he said. “We see him jump in the water. I’m thinking in my head, you jump in that water, you’re gone, you dead. You ain’t gonna survive that water, but apparently they got him up out of there.”
Meanwhile, Fernandez said in the 23 years he has lived here, he’s never seen anything like this.
“It was a very exciting Friday,” he said.
Anderson has had previous run-ins with police dating back to 1986, when he was 17 years old.
His most recent charges include grand theft in 2021 and burglary in 2004.
Now, he faces charges of battery on a law enforcement officer.
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