TAMARAC, Fla. – A man who had his Tesla carjacked during a dangerous tri-county police chase shared his horrifying experience in an exclusive interview with Local 10 News Friday.
Edward Foster and Matthew Geimer, Jr., both 22, are facing federal charges after a tri-county police chase in South Florida and a crime spree that included stealing a Lexus, a Tesla and a Rolex on Wednesday afternoon.
Emilian Cristian told Local 10 News that he was driving in his Tesla when the armed suspect stopped his vehicle, pointed a rifle at him, and said, “Get the F out of the car. I am going to...”
Cristian said he tried to get away but ended up unlocking the door instead.
“For a second I thought I could get away just press on the gas pedal and get away. The next thing I remember is I unlocked the door and got out,” he said.
Cristian told Local 10 News he had no idea the suspects had crossed three counties as they fled from police.
“I didn’t know that he was running from the police and trying to steal the car,” he said.
After getting out of the car, Cristian said he realized the seriousness of the situation as deputies surrounded his Tesla.
After being in a state of shock, Cristian said the first thing he tried to do was reach out to his wife by using his Apple Watch.
“It was incoherent because I was shaking,” he said.
Emilian Cristian’s wife, Daniela Cristian, told Local 10 News that she couldn’t hear what was going on because of the police sirens but knew something was wrong.
She said she used a Tesla app to track down her husband before rushing to the scene near Commercial Boulevard and Rock Island Road.
“I was terrified,” she said. “There were helicopters everywhere (and) police, 40 or 50, I don’t know how many.”
During the tri-county chase that involved several local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies in Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, and Broward counties, the fugitives went their separate ways.
One of them was in police custody before the other approached a nearby canal, south of the scene of the crash, took off his shoes and some of his clothes, and jumped into the water. He swam across and ran through residential yards in Tamarac.
The suspect then ran into an opportunity. Gisela Taveras, 71, had her garage door open, so he quickly sneaked into her house in the area of Northwest 54 Street and 49 Way.
A BSO SWAT team surrounded Taveras’s house, and the intruder surrendered at about 2:30 p.m. Tamarac Fire Rescue personnel took him to a nearby hospital for a checkup before deputies drove him to Broward’s main jail in Fort Lauderdale, according to BSO Public Information Officer Carey Codd.
Foster and Geimer were already fugitives when detectives identified them as suspects in an armed robbery in the city of North Miami’s Key Stone Islands community. Speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, the victim’s neighbor said they stole a Rolex watch and the victim’s daughter recorded the robber’s license plate.
Authorities reported no one was injured during the high-speed chase that also involved Florida Highway Patrol troopers and the FBI. The U.S. Marshals Office was the arresting agency for both Foster and Geimer, BSO correction records show.
Daniela Cristian said it was a scary moment, but grateful that her husband is still alive and that no one was hurt.
“This could’ve been so much worse,” she said.
Deputies booked them at Broward’s main jail for armed carjacking, and they remained there Thursday afternoon without bond on U.S. Marshals Office holds. BSO deputies who were involved anticipate they will face additional charges, according to Codd.
Geimer, a convicted felon accused of violating his probation, has a history of weapon-related charges as a teen growing up in South Florida, records show. Foster, who has a history of arrests in Opa-locka and Homestead, is awaiting trial in a pending case and a judge recently revoked his bond status and issued an arrest warrant.
Local 10 News Digital Journalist Andrea Torres contributed to this story.