A man who was carjacked at gunpoint during a wild tri-county police pursuit in South Florida this week recalled he was scared for his life during the entire ordeal. NBC6’s Ryan Nelson reports
A man who was carjacked at gunpoint during a wild tri-county police pursuit in South Florida this week recalled he was scared for his life during the entire ordeal.
Emilian Cristea was in his white Tesla when he came face-to-face with a man pointing a gun at his window Wednesday.
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WATCH HEREThe doctor was coming home from his shift at a local hospital and was driving along Commercial Boulevard in Tamarac when he was carjacked at gunpoint.
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“He didn’t even realize it at first, that the guys came up to the window with a gun saying 'get the eff out of the car' and he said 'I didn’t do anything, I didn’t do anything,'" said his wife, Daniela Cristea. "They said 'get the eff out of the car' and he just of course gave up the car immediately."
Emilian Cristea, exhausted from his hospital shift, got out of the car.
"I thought I upset him in traffic and that he wanted to, you know, like teach me a lesson, or that was the first thing that went to my mind at that time," he said. "And I thought for a second to press on the gas pedal and get out. And I ended up opening the door, you know, I got out."
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Daniela Cristea said the frightening situation could have gone much worse for her husband.
"I was so scared. I was so scared for my life at that time," Emilian Cristea said. "I thought, that was it. Uh, and I must have blanked out."
Wednesday's pursuit began in Miami-Dade with an armed robbery in North Miami. Authorities said the suspects in the robbery fled in a white Lexus sedan that had been reported stolen.
The Lexus ended up on the Florida's Turnpike in Broward, where the Broward Sheriff's Office and Florida Highway Patrol joined other agencies in the pursuit which went into Palm Beach and back into Broward.
At one point, the speeding Lexus stopped and one of the suspects tried to carjack another vehicle at gunpoint, officials said.
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He was unsuccessful and got back in the Lexus, which continued to flee from authorities at a high rate of speed.
A short time later, one of the suspects successfully carjacked Emilian Cristea's Tesla.
His wife said there were some frightening moments as she tried to figure out what was happening.
"He had texted me 'gun' and I’m like 'what’s happening, are you okay, are you alive?' That’s all that I was thinking," she said. "He was calling me from his Apple Watch and all I could hear was sirens so I knew that there was something wrong."
Emilian was safe, but as one of the suspects fled on foot, the other tried to flee in the Tesla, crashing into another car and then head-on into a law enforcement truck.
"I get there and the officer tells me 'there was a carjacking, your husband's okay, thank goodness' and finally they let me see him after about an hour," Daniela Cristea said.
The suspects, Edward Foster and Matthew Geimer Jr., both 22, were eventually taken into custody in a neighborhood in Tamarac and face charges including armed carjacking and aggravated fleeing and eluding, Broward Sheriff's Office officials said Thursday.
Foster and Geimer were booked into the Broward jail and remained behind bars on a U.S. Marshals Service hold, records showed.
Florida Department of Law Enforcement records showed both men have lengthy histories of arrests.
"I don’t know. I believe the car is totaled, but luckily the officers stopped the guys and caught the guys and the car is just a car. He escaped with his life. It could have been much different, so I’m grateful," Daniela Cristea said. "He’s a really great guy so I’m just grateful that I have my husband back and our daughter has her dad."
