MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A Homestead man was killed and two Miami-Dade police officers were injured Tuesday morning after a crash in southwest Miami-Dade County, police said.
Detective Lee Cowart, a spokesman for the Miami-Dade County Police Department, said the two officers were traveling west on Southwest 260th Street just before 1:30 a.m. when their patrol car collided with a white Nissan Ultima at Southwest 147th Avenue.
The driver of the Ultima, 45-year-old Emilio Jesus Vizcaino, was pronounced dead at the scene, Cowart said.
Police said the only stop signs at the intersection are on Southwest 260th Street.
Miami-Dade police did not identify the officers involved in the crash, but Cowart said one officer has been on the force for six years while the others is in training and has been working for the department for about three months.
"We have no indication they were responding to a call, so we can assume at this point that there were no lights or sirens," Cowart said.
Both officers were airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital's Ryder Trauma Center in Miami. An officer who visited them at the hospital told Local 10 News that both men suffered serious injuries but are expected to survive. They have since been released from the hospital, Cowart said.
Investigators spent hours at the scene, collecting evidence, taking photographs and trying to determine things like how fast each driver was going before the crash.
"Traffic homicides in general are very meticulous types of investigations," Cowart said. "All of the evidence on the scene -- vehicles, skid marks, any parts from vehicles -- they will all be identified. They take meticulous measurements."
Jose Diaz, who owns the nursery where the crash ended, told Local 10 News that the intersection where the crash happened has always been a dangerous one.
"We're trying to push (for) a four-way stop in here, in this intersection, because there are so many accidents here," he said.
Authorities have not released the identities of the officers or the victim who died.