Driver Runs Off After Slamming Into Miami Beach 7-Eleven
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MIAMI BEACH (CBSMiami) – Cellphone video captured a flaming Audi SUV slammed up against the front of a 7-Eleven on Miami Beach overnight.
On the video a woman can be heard screaming "get away from the car" as the flames continued to grow, setting the front of the store ablaze as well.
A man shouts, "It's going to blow!"
Firefighters arrived at the scene on Washington Avenue and 9th Street in just over three minutes, quickly extinguishing the blaze.
The car's collision with the store was the culmination of an argument, according to witnesses.
"I saw two ladies in the car arguing," said Nathan Johnson, a visitor from Chicago.
Johnson said the argument escalated.
"They drove past me, they were headed this way, but they were more than arguing, they looked like they got into tussling or fighting and crashed right into the store, and the car caught fire," Johnson said.
The female passenger remained on the scene. The woman driving the car, however, ran away.
Beach resident Mitch Novick, who lives just down to block, shot the cellphone video.
"I heard it," Novick said of the cars run-in with the 7-Eleven.
"This is another day in paradise," Novick added. "I see this type of stuff all the time."
Police did not say to what extent the passenger was or was not cooperating with them.
As of mid-afternoon Friday, no arrest had been announced, and police would not say if the suspected hit-and-run driver was in custody.
The car did not actually penetrate the convenience store, because it was blocked by steel columns in the front.
Several of the stores floor-to-ceiling windows were shattered, however, by the heat from the fire.
No one was injured.
