Two suspects robbed the mayor of Miami Shores at gunpoint, Tuesday, but, police said, she chased them down and managed to take note of their car’s license plate.
Miami Shores Mayor Alice Burch had stopped to get coffee, on the corner of Northeast Second Avenue and Northeast 95th Avenue, when two armed men rushed up to her, grabbed her purse and ran off. Burch chased down the suspects, eventually helping police catch and arrest them.
The robbery happened in split seconds, in broad daylight, but one witness said it felt like slow motion.
“All slow motion, like, just see it playing out,” the witness said. “I saw the gun and was like, there’s no need to get involved with that. That’s why they give chase.”
Burch ran them down and tried to get her belongings back. Police said she was thrown to the ground but managed to take note of the suspects’ car and license plate.
“That makes all the difference in the world because, would we have taken 5, 10 seconds to get the necessary information, they may have been west of I-95,” Miami Shores Police Lt. James Somohano said.
Miami Shores and Miami Police chased the suspects to a few blocks away, where the two men were arrested. Police also searched a warehouse for a possible third person.
“We thought, initially, that one of the subjects might have gone into there or maybe an additional subject that we don’t know about,” Somohano said.
Last month, surveillance cameras captured a man accosting a woman and stealing her $30,000 engagement ring in the parking lot of the strip mall where Tuesday’s robbery took place. That subject was later caught and arrested.
No one was injured, but the mayor was visibly shaken.
Police said they will start combing through the suspects’ car to see if there are any other stolen possessions inside.
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