The 2019 Toyota Camry was upside-down in the canal, with a red liquid streaming out. At first, a policeman on scene assumed it was radiator fluid, but a nearby officer interjected, "That's blood, bro."
The officers stayed on the banks of the canal as they watched two of the teenagers floating in the water during the February 13, 2021, tragedy. They called for assistance from a dive team but made no immediate attempt to rescue the crash victims, according to victims' families.
Upon arrival, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue pulled the youths out of the water — Terence Valdivia, 14, Jeremiah Calderon, 16, and Rihanna Vargas, 14 — none of whom survived.
At an embankment near the crash site, Homestead police came upon the sole survivor: the 15-year-old driver. The teenager, who was too young for a driver's license, had fled twice from officers that morning, reaching speeds of more than 110 mph in the vehicle, which he had stolen from a family member.
Media statements from the Homestead Police Department in the aftermath of the crash — claiming officers were not chasing the vehicle — apparently conflict with bodycam footage of the pursuit, leading to questions about whether there was a cover-up. The video was obtained by community activist James Eric McDonough through a court battle with the department.
In a lawsuit filed this week, the families of Vargas and Valdivia are seeking to hold the Homestead Police Department liable for leaving the injured teens in the canal while waiting for paramedics to arrive.
"They initiated the chase. They knew this was an occupied vehicle... They knew it was in the water, and they did not attempt to rescue a soul," the families' attorney, Joni Mosely, tells New Times.
The medical examiner's reports list blunt-force trauma as the cause of death for Vargas and Valdivia, with submersion in water as a contributing factor.
As Mosely sees it, Homestead officers should never have initiated the chase in the first place. She says it violated department policy that bars high-speed pursuits unless a suspect is believed to have committed a forcible felony such as murder, rape, or burglary.
"This is precisely the type of police chase that is not allowed... They chased these kids down because they believed they committed a traffic infraction. Three kids died so the City of Homestead could try to write a traffic ticket," Mosely claims.
A 15-year-old fled from Homestead police and crashed into a canal, killing 14-year-old Rihanna Vargas and two other teens.
Photo by the Vargas family, provided by The Mosely Firm
When reached by New Times, the Homestead Police Department declined to comment on the allegations, saying it does not issue statements on pending litigation.
By all accounts, Homestead police first encountered the Toyota Camry that morning around 3:00 a.m. The driver cut off Officer Belinda Ramirez and then sped away, according to the department. Ramirez put out an alert for the vehicle and briefly pursued it before it zoomed off.
Another officer, Sgt. Ryan Khawley, came upon the vehicle an hour later and initiated a high-speed chase on the streets of Homestead after the driver fled again. Khawley can be heard on his bodycam footage saying, "I just lost them," as he heads around a curve on Palm Drive around 4:03 a.m.
The sergeant stopped abruptly in front of another car and drew his gun before realizing he had the wrong vehicle. Officers then retraced the chase route until they located the Toyota in the canal.
By 4:10 a.m., the Homestead police had spotted a body floating in the water.
Mosely claims the teens were left in the canal for at least ten minutes while officers waited for paramedics. Vargas was still trapped in the backseat of the vehicle at the time, Mosely says.
"Despite being first responders, no officers from the Homestead Police Department made any attempt to rescue Terence Valdivia, Rihanna Vargas, or any of the teens from the water before paramedics arrived," the lawsuit alleges.
Valdivia was transported to Jackson South Community Hospital, where he passed away at 5:30 a.m. Vargas was pronounced dead twenty minutes later at Homestead Hospital.
A police department spokesperson reportedly told the Miami Herald in the aftermath of the crash that Khawley was far away when the vehicle careened off the road and that the incident "was not considered a chase.”
In May 2022, that narrative was challenged after the activist McDonough filed a mandamus petition in Miami court, demanding access to bodycam footage and other records from the incident. He claimed the police department had improperly withheld the records by citing an open-investigation exception to public records law. In his court filings, McDonough called it "absurd" that the department would continue to claim an open investigation after the teen driver was arrested.
The driver was booked on charges of vehicular homicide, fleeing police, and driving without a license one day after McDonough published an update on the case on his True Homestead blog.
In July 2022, the Homestead Police Department notified the court that it had released to McDonough bodycam footage and other records related to the crash. In response to a subsequent court order issued the following month, the department turned over additional material — namely, a set of accident reports. The documentation revealed that Khawley was indeed chasing the Toyota Camry prior to the crash. [Editor's note: A correction ran concerning this paragraph; see note at the end of this story.]
The families' lawsuit claims that Khawley's pre-employment psychological examination in 2012 noted deficiencies in "impulse control" and "lack of problem-solving ability."
Khawley's employment screening document, which was signed by the Homestead chief of police, states that Khawley was "not recommended" for hire, Mosely says. The attorney says she is still looking into how and why the police department brought Khawley on the force in spite of the findings of the screening.
The city is the sole defendant in the case.
Terence's father, Alayn Hernandez, along with Rihanna's mother, Norma Vargas, are still reeling from their loss.
"These kids were teenagers. That's an age when you start thinking about your child's future and realize that they have their entire lives ahead of them," Mosely says. "It's utterly devastating... There's no getting past something like this."
Correction published 2/9/2023: As originally published, this story failed to note that the Homestead Police Department released crash-related documentation to James Eric McDonough in two separate tranches. The above version reflects the corrected text.
