I've said it before, I'll say it again. You can always expect a little urban drama near and around 29th Street between NE Second Avenue and Biscayne Boulevard to liven up your work day.
Earlier this afternoon a black male suspect in a stolen four-door Hyundai with Arkansas plates led Miami Police in a wild chase from Overtown that ended on the edge of 27th Street and NE Second, just two blocks from New Times HQ.
Still waiting on more details from a MPD spokesman, but Sgt. James Marshall, who was at the scene, relayed the Hyundai's driver is wanted in a homicide, which is why the cops were chasing him.
The suspect banged into the rear passenger side of Marshall's marked Chevrolet Caprice squad car. "I was on my way to the car wash when the call came in," Marshall noted glumly. "I take pride in my vehicle."
Another blue-and-white shredded two tires. The suspect's battered Hyundai ended up in the left southbound lane on NE Second. A third car, a silver Cherokee crashed into a tree on the corner of 27th Street. According to Marshall, the SUV's driver was too busy looking at the chase coming at him.
That driver, a dapper olive-skinned chap in aviator glasses, declined comment.
Sidney Gathers, the owner of a red two-door car hit by the suspect, says he was traveling north when the Hyundai sideswiped him on the passenger's side. "He looked me in the face and kept going," Gathers hissed. "I had to follow the cops. I wasn't just going to sit there."
The suspect tried to flee on foot but was apprehended on 26 Street near the gas station with no name.