MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Miami-Dade police arrested a doctor on Monday for fleeing the scene of a crash in the parking lot of a Chase Bank in the Westchester area, authorities said.
The crash took place on May 15, when police responded to a call of a hit-and-run with injuries involving two people at the bank branch at 8700 SW 24th St., authorities said.
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According to his arrest report, the doctor, Armando Pineda Velez, 72, of Coral Springs, admitted to being the driver on the date of the crash. He also said he remembered the crash and said that he was backing out of the parking spot when he heard a loud bang on his car, it states.
Pineda Velez also saw one of the women he hit walking with a walker and holding her back, and said he asked if both women were okay, but they refused to speak with him, authorities said. Pineda Velez said he believed that both women were OK and left the scene, the report states.
The victims of the crash, Ada Mendez and Clara Elena Vargas, told police the car’s tag number and said that they were walking in the parking lot when the car backed out of the parking spot and hit them both, the report states.
Mendez told police that the driver never left the car and just drove away, according to the arrest report. Mendez also said the driver looked like a white woman with black hair, it states.
Mendez was taken to HCA Florida Kendall Hospital with unknown injuries and an emergency room doctor examined Vargas.
A records check of the tag that the victims gave to police matched Pineda Velez’s information, authorities said.
Pineda Velez faces one count of felony leaving the scene of a crash with no serious injury.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Pineda Velez was no longer showing up in the jail database.