Dashcam video shows FHP trooper stop suspected carjacker during Miami Beach chase
By: New dashcam video shows multiple angles of a Florida Highway Patrol trooper's PIT maneuver and crash that ended the chase of a suspect in a stolen car in Miami Beach over the weekend.
The chase started on Sunday at around 7:30 p.m. when troopers tried to stop a stolen Toyota SUV in the area of Alton Road and 56th Street, FHP officials said.
Video provided by authorities shows that a trooper attempted once to stop the SUV by bumping the vehicle and performing a PIT maneuver. The suspect vehicle wobbled but kept going.
Shortly after, the trooper tried again and was successful in stopping the fleeing SUV on the entrance ramp to westbound Interstate 95 from Alton Road.
The driver, 46-year-old Savalas Cigar, was arrested "without incident" and faces charges of fleeing police and grand theft of a vehicle in the third degree, FHP said.
Miami-Dade Corrections
Glenda Defas, the victim of the initial carjacking.
She said she was parking her SUV in Miami on Saturday when a man asked her for money. When she told the man she didn’t have any money, he allegedly approached her with a hammer and threatened her.
“I was shaking because the guy was threatening me with a hammer,” Defas said. “(I said) 'You're going to destroy yourself for this, and you'll destroy my life?'"
Defas walked away, but moments later, the man got inside her SUV and took off. Her brother, who is disabled and deaf, was inside the vehicle but got out when the man hopped in.
“My brother came running and said, Glenda, the guy took the car,” Defas said.
Defas said several of her personal belongings were inside the SUV, including her credit card, which she said the suspect later used. She said the suspect also sold several of her belongings. Defas had to borrow a phone so she could call 911.
“It took seven years to pay this car and finally I had no more payments and this happened,” Defas said. “I feel hopeless, I feel destroyed.”