HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – A police officer was recovering from surgery on Monday after a carjacking suspect shot him during a pursuit involving law enforcement agencies from Miami-Dade and Broward counties.
Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood discharged Golden Beach Sgt. Joseph Bautista on Monday afternoon. He was in a wheelchair as a group of police officers saluted him.
“I am just glad that I was able to use my training and come home to my family,” Bautista said in a recorded statement.
Lissette Perez, a spokeswoman for the town of Golden Glades, reported that although Bautista was released from the hospital, he “faces a long road to recovery ahead of him.” Alex Diaz, Golden Glades town manager, said, “Bautista is a father, a brother, a son, a colleague” who has been with the town for about a decade.
Madison Berndt and Uzi Hardoon, who organized a fundraiser on behalf of Nancy Interiano Bautista, reported the Golden Beach sergeant, a father of two, suffered “serious” injuries to his arm and shoulder.
“The events of April 29th have upended not only Sgt. Bautista’s life, but that of his wife, young children, and parents. A family man, Joseph planned to attend his daughter’s dance recital over the weekend followed by a birthday party for himself with his family and friends as soon as he ended his shift,” Perez wrote.
Jordan Elijah Christophe, a carjacking suspect, stands accused of shooting Bautista, of the Golden Glades Police Department, twice on Saturday morning in Broward County.
At about 3:15 a.m., on Saturday, Christophe and Marvens Vauze Declasse were speeding northbound in a stolen car on Ocean Boulevard, and police officers with the Sunny Isles Beach, Golden Beach, and Hollywood police departments were involved in the pursuit, police said.
Christophe, 23, and Declasse, 28, jumped out of the car after a crash at Hallandale Beach Boulevard, and took off running — and Bautista followed them, police said. After the shooting, fire rescue personnel took Bautista to Memorial Regional Hospital, police said.
Detectives recovered Christophe’s gun and the stolen car, police said. Christophe and Declasse appeared in Broward County court on Sunday, and Broward Sherriff’s Office deputies were holding them without bond. The arresting agency was the Hollywood Police Department.
Christophe was at the Broward main jail and Declasse was at the North Broward Bureau on Monday afternoon, BSO inmate records show. Declasse was facing charges of grand theft auto and resisting arrest without violence, court records show.
Christophe is facing charges of attempted murder, possession of a weapon by a convicted felon, grand theft auto, grand theft of a firearm, soliciting to conspire in a first-degree felony, resisting an officer with violence, and probation violation, court records show.
Detectives were asking anyone with information about the case to call Broward County Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477 or Miami-Dade County Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.
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Local 10 News Assignment Desk Editor Frine Gomez contributed to this report.