FLORIDA CITY, Fla. – A 17-year-old driver is dead after he drove a rental car into a home following a police chase in Florida City Thursday afternoon, according to the Miami-Dade Police Department.
Before that, Miami-Dade police units had arrived at the scene of a rollover crash sometime after 3 p.m. in the River Oaks townhome community, near Southwest 336th Street and 180th Avenue.
An officer with MDPD Robbery Intervention Detail (RID) was at a nearby gas station and approached the driver, identified as Brandon Madison, about a traffic infraction, according to investigators.
Police said as detectives approached Madison, he slammed the door of the black Mercedes-Benz, catching an officer’s hand in the door before fleeing the scene. Another officer from RID tried to stop the vehicle. When Madison made a U-turn, he lost control of the car, driving on the grass outside of a home. The car then rolled over several times before slamming into the wall of the home, according to police.
Madison was pronounced dead at the scene.
Mari Williams, who lives nearby the crime scene, told Local 10 News that the severe crash in the apartment as the vehicle was seen mangled and left upside down.
“The car had hit the apartment and made it halfway into the apartment,” she said.
“It was totaled (and) it had the yellow tarp,” said Florida City resident Krystal Holmes. “It’s an unfortunate incident and I am sorry that a life had to be lost during this.”
As the vehicle tumbled through the air, police said a gun equipped with a high-capacity magazine flew out the window and bullets fell out everywhere.
“What’s important is that you have a 17-year-old who lost their life,” Miami-Dade Police Detective Alvaro Zabaleta said at a press conference. “You have a 17-year-old, for whatever the reason why he was fleeing, he put himself and other people in danger.”
Sky 10 was over the scene and captured video of an officer standing guard near a handgun that was located about half a block away from the home.
“It was determined that the firearm was ejected from the subject vehicle as it rolled over during the crash,” Zabaleta said in a news release.
Zabaleta also said the gun that was recovered by police was reported stolen out of northeast Miami-Dade.
Investigators also revealed that the black Mercedes that the suspect was driving was registered to a rental car company.
Local 10 News reporter Roy Ramos contributed to this story.