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Car Slams Into Miami Police Substation

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) - A Miami police substation was evacuated after a car plowed into the building.

The car plowed into a rear utility room of the station at 1000 NW 62nd Street around 7 a.m.

Due to a suspicious package and a firearm found in the vehicle, the station was evacuated and the bomb squad was called in to investigate. The suspicious package turned out to be a safe. No explosives were found.

The driver of the car, identified as 36-year-old Giftson Cherenfant, suffered minor injuries and was taken to Jackson Memorial Ryder Trauma Center.

Giftson
Giftson Cherenfant (Source: Miami Police)

Miami police Chief Jorge Colina said Cherenfant's family said he had been acting strangely the last few days but had no idea why he did this.

"There really is nothing in his history to indicate why he would behave this way. He does have a history of narcotics use but we don't know if that was a factor here, it's too early to tell," said Colina.

Cherensant's mother, Celia, was in disbelief when whe heard what had happened, saying he's never done anything like this before.

"When I wake up I didn't see his car parked," she said.

"Did he ever have problems before with the substation of police," asked CbS4's Peter D'Oench.

"No," she said, "He never says mommy I got a problem with the police or this police station."

She said her son always obeyed her.

"I never have problems. When I see Giftson I say get something for me and he always says 'yes mommy'."

Colina said while they don't know why he did it, they do know for certain was that this "was an intentional breach."

"There is no violent history to this subject but a weapon was recovered. Bomb squad investigated, they checked the alley and the surrounding area. We took every precaution to make sure that there wasn't any other danger and I'm happy to report that there wasn't," said Colina.

Colina said this was not a random act.

"At 7:01 this morning he breached the rear gate but he was in the area earlier. We don't know the reason for that. That will be part of the ongoing investigation. But we have video surveillance that shows us that he meant to go through the gate, it was not an accidental breach," said Colina.

Colina said after Cherenfant went through the gate and into the wall, a sergeant in the parking lot used his car to pin Cherenfant's vehicle to the wall so he wouldn't be able to back up.

Several officers from the substation arrived shortly after, guns drawn, and took him into custody.

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