FLORIDA CITY, Fla. – A fender-bender turned into a felony case for a man driving in Florida City in mid-August after police said he hit the passenger in the pickup he rear-ended as he fled the scene, seriously injuring him.
Florida City police arrested William Alvarado, 43, of southwest Miami-Dade, on Monday.
Recommended Videos
According to police, the crash happened just before 7:15 p.m. on Aug. 10.
Authorities said Alvarado, driving north on U.S. 1 towards Florida’s Turnpike near Palm Drive in a 2016 Honda Civic, “failed to pay attention” and rear-ended the victim’s pickup truck.
An arrest report states that when the victim, the passenger in the truck, got out to check for damage, Alvarado pinned him between the two vehicles as he took off. Police said Alvarado then struck a third vehicle, a Scion, before getting away.
The victim ended up seriously hurt and had to be airlifted from Homestead Hospital to Jackson South Medical Center, police said. He required surgery and metal rods in his right leg.
Police said they were able to identify Alvarado as the driver and on Sunday, went to his home in the 18900 block of Southwest 309th Street, just outside of Homestead.
They said Alvarado wasn’t there, but his Honda was, and the damages matched those described in the crash.
Authorities said Alvarado came to the Florida City Police Department to provide a statement Monday, claiming that the crash stemmed from a road rage incident and that he and the other driver stopped on U.S. 1 after the other driver “began to yell profanit(ies)” at him.
The report states that Alvarado claimed “there was no rear-end collision,” however, police noted that the pickup had rear damage.
Alvarado said that he saw the driver and passenger exit the truck and walk towards his vehicle carrying “blunt objects,” at which point he “began to back up,” police said.
The rest of Alvarado’s statement was redacted from the arrest report, save for the part where police said he told investigators “he is a veteran.”
After the interview, he also became an inmate.
Police arrested Alvarado on a charge of leaving the scene of a crash causing serious bodily injury, a second-degree felony, and took him to the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.
He remained there as of Tuesday on a $7,500 bond, jail records show.