U-Haul Driver Leads Police On Multi-County Chase
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OPA-LOCKA (CBSMiami) -- Police have arrested a man driving a U-Haul van after chasing him through Miami-Dade and Broward counties Sunday afternoon.
Opa-locka Police got a call at about 1 p.m. that someone was driving a U-Haul van erratically. Officers pulled over the van and things went downhill from there.
"The vehicle stopped. One of our officers exited and tried to make contact with the driver," said Police Chief James Dobson. "At that point, that driver struck the Opa-locka officer and he radioed in for back up."
Police chased the van along N.W. 151st Street to 27th Avenue where it turned north in Miami Gardens.
Chief Dobson said the van hit parked vehicles along the way before the chase finally ended near the county line at SR-441 in Miramar. A patrol unit was able to block the van.
A woman getting ice cream with her family at a Dairy Queen saw it happen right in front of her.
"We are so happy because it's very dangerous," said Fabiola Saavedra. "We never know if everybody had a gun. But the police was very quick. So we are so happy for that because Sunday is the day where we wanna try to be with the family in peace."
It's a heavily trafficked area.
"It makes it dangerous for everyone involved. Our citizens that are out today, it's a Sunday morning, Sunday afternoon," said Chief Dobson. "Also for the officers, we had one that was struck. My officers, nor any other department, knew what we had at this time."
The driver was booked at the Broward County jail charged with several crimes, including aggravated battery on an officer and aggravated assault with a vehicle on an officer.
The wounded police officer was taken to the hospital, treated and released.
