A bizarre baby kidnapping on Monday evening has left one person dead and two critically injured, including the 15-month-old kidnapped girl.
According to police, the incident began as an attempt by Mylife Rivera-Vasquez, 20, to forcefully take custody of her daughter, Juliet Rivera. Rivera-Vasquez invited the baby's step-mom to meet at Juan Pablo Duarte Park in Allapattah so that she could see her child.
But the play-date quickly went wrong when Rivera-Vasquez and her friends jumped the step-mom and stole the kid, only to get into a horrific accident while fleeing the scene.
According to Miami Police, Rivera-Vasquez and four others attacked the step-mom, punching her in the mouth several times before taking Juliet.
Rivera-Vasquez and one of her accomplices, 22-year-old Kristofer Daniel Astorga, then jumped into a gray Lincoln Towncar with the baby and sped west on NW 28th Street.
The car swung south onto NW 21st Avenue, barreling through stop signs, witnesses told police, before t-boning a Chevy Tahoe that was traveling west on 20th Street.
"Both vehicles collided causing two of the three occupants, the driver and a fifteen-month-old child, to be ejected from the Lincoln," according to a police statement.
All three passengers were seriously injured. Astorga, the driver, died shortly thereafter at Jackson Memorial Hospital. Rivera-Vasquez and her child remain in critical condition, but are expected to recover, Miami Police spokesman William Moreno said. The Tahoe's two passengers escaped with minor injuries.
Moreno said it isn't clear who had legal custody of the child, and that details of the strange family heist were still fuzzy.
"We have to sort fact from fiction," he said.
Rivera-Vasquez has been charged with two counts of simple battery. Court records show several prior arrests for marijuana possession. Astorga also had a prior arrest for marijuana possession in addition to a concealed weapons charge that was dropped.
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