A Miami-Dade Police officer was hospitalized after being struck by a stolen car as the driver was attempting to avoid arrest Monday night, officials said.
The incident happened around 7:30 p.m. Monday in the area of Southwest 211th Street and Frontage Road near the Florida's Turnpike after undercover officers using a license plate reader spotted a gray 2017 Dodge Charger Hellcat that had been reported stolen, Miami-Dade Police spokesman Alvaro Zabaleta said.
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The car was also believed to be involved in multiple armed robberies and shootings, Zabaleta said.
Officers stopped the Charger and a detective was approaching it when the driver put the car in motion, hitting a police car and clipping the detective, Zabaleta said.
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The officer was able to shoot at the car as it fled the scene.
The officer involved was taken to an area hospital, where he was listed in stable condition and was expected to be okay.
"This could have been very tragic, not only for the officer, the way this vehicle fled the scene, it could have crashed into another car and then innocent residents could have also been involved," Zabaleta said.
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Police are still looking for the grey 2017 Dodge Charger that had two men inside. Zabaleta said they're considered armed and dangerous.
"We need the assistance of the community because it was 7:30 at night, still broad daylight, a lot of people are still commuting along these areas of the streets and perhaps they saw a vehicle that was driving in a very erratic, irresponsible way, reckless manner, and didn't know what was going on," Zabaleta said. "But now that they know that these are dangerous individuals and they tried to run over an officer, their information of what they saw, direction of travel, anything that they could provide us would be of great help."
Anyone with information is asked to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS.
