MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – A spinning, crashing end to a police chase was caught on camera after a Florida Highway Patrol trooper, used the precision immobilization technique – better known as a PIT maneuver – on an Opa-locka police captain.
It happened around 10:35 p.m. on Nov. 29.
FHP said they got reports of a car fleeing a traffic stop and driving recklessly, so Trooper Walner Wroy activated his lights and sirens and began searching for the vehicle.
Then, a few minutes later, he spots a dark-colored KIA Stinger speeding along State Road 826 and cutting through traffic, so he assumed it was the car he was looking for.
Wroy followed the KIA off of the highway and onto Northwest 167th Street, both cars still speeding eastbound.
The KIA went through a red light at Northwest 17th Avenue and eventually made a left on red to go northbound on Northwest 12th Avenue.
Moments later, the trooper pulled up next to the KIA and performed the pit.
But then, the driver of the KIA leaned over and turned on his own red and blue lights. It turned out that was Opa-Locka Police Captain Cory Krotenberg.
Opa-locka police told Local 10 News Krotenberg was participating in a multi-agency gang task force operation and that a police helicopter was above helping officers on the road track a suspect vehicle that was involved in a violent crime.
FHP said Trooper Wroy was neither under investigation for wrongdoing nor was he facing any discipline, since he had a reasonable belief that this car was fleeing and eluding an order to stop.
Opa-locka police said the captain was not violating any department policies either, and when Local 10 News followed up asking about his speeding, weaving in and out of vehicles, and running red lights with no emergency lights on, they declined to comment further.