Photo by Felipe Esteban Acosta
Audio By Carbonatix
The Miami Beach Police Department (MBPD) is investigating after one of its officers struck a woman and her baby with his unmarked patrol car in Miami Beach.
At around 1 p.m. on September 19, Felipe Esteban Acosta was walking through a pedestrian crosswalk between 8th Street and Michigan Avenue in Miami Beach when he stepped ahead of a woman walking at a slower pace. Just as he reached the other side, he heard a loud screeching noise behind him and turned to see a pickup truck slam into a woman holding her baby.
Acosta says he watched in shock as the woman rolled across the hood and windshield before hitting the pavement, all the while clutching her baby, who was secured in a front-facing carrier.
“I was only like, eight feet in front of her,” Acosta tells New Times. He imagined what might have happened if he had kept pace with the woman. “If I didn’t cut her off on the sidewalk, and we crossed at the same time…you know what I mean?”
Miami Beach Fire Rescue tells New Times they responded to the scene and transported two patients to a nearby hospital.
Acosta says the woman appeared to have road rash across her body, but it’s unclear what injuries she or her child sustained. Their conditions have not been released, and Miami Beach Fire Rescue declined to comment, citing HIPAA.
Acosta estimates the officer was driving at least 35 miles per hour when the collision occurred. He says the officer first got out of the unmarked truck to check on the woman, then returned to the vehicle, activated the truck’s police light bar, and turned on his police radio, seemingly calling other officers.
MBPD spokesperson Christopher Bess confirmed the driver was an on-duty officer who was likely leaving MBPD headquarters at the time of the incident, though the department has not released his name. Bess added that neither the woman nor her child suffered “serious injuries,” and that the officer remains on active duty.
Acosta recorded a video following the crash, which shows fire rescue officials surrounding a woman seated on the curb at the end of a crosswalk. The officer who was driving the truck appears to be in plainclothes, wearing a black T-shirt with the words “jiu jitsu” visible on it. The video shows a gray Ford pickup with police lights flashing parked in the middle of the intersection, its front wheels resting on the crosswalk.
But while Bess tells New Times that a preliminary investigation indicates the crash happened at the intersection of 8th Street and Michigan Avenue, not within a crosswalk, Acosta’s footage clearly shows a four-way crosswalk at the scene, which is also visible in Google Maps’ street view.
“The investigation is still playing its course,” Bess says. “Obviously, due to the sensitivity of the incident, we want to do our due diligence.”
This is a breaking story and will be updated as events warrant.
