A Sweetwater traffic stop Monday ended with a police-involved shooting, a truck overturned, a trail of damaged cars and a search for a man who ran from officers, according to Miami-Dade police.

A police helicopter along with dozens of officers from Sweetwater, Miami-Dade, Hialeah and Florida International University combed through the neighborhoods near Southwest Eighth Street and 99th Avenue for almost 12 hours in search of Felipe Aaron Torrealba, 22. Police said Torrealba is from Palm Coast, which is about 25 miles south of St. Augustine.

About 5:30 am, Sweetwater police conducted a traffic stop of Torrealba’s black Mercedes Benz S500 near Southwest Eighth Street and 107th Avenue. Torrealba and one passenger, Don Drey St. Phar, 23, was inside the car, Miami-Dade police said.

Police did not say what was the exact infraction that caused officers to stop the car.

Both men were outside the car when Torrealba ran toward it. He displayed a gun, which police believe he may have had on him, Miami-Dade police spokesman Detective Javier Baez said.

“The shooting begins as he enters the car,” Baez said.

Two Sweetwater officers fired, Baez said. It did not appear that Torrealba fired his weapon, he said. The bullets struck the car’s front windshield and the driver’s side window.

A bullet also struck the window of a car traveling nearby, police said. The car’s driver was cut by the broken glass.

The passenger, St. Phar, stayed at the scene. Torrealba drove away, eastbound on Eighth Street, but he didn’t get far. Near 99th Place he slammed into a black Ford F-150 driven by Juan Pérez, a plumber.

The truck crashed into a palm tree and ended up overturned in the middle of the road.

Its tires, transmission and the steering wheel all fell onto the street, along with the plumber’s tools.

Pérez was airlifted to Kendall Regional Medical Center, where he was in intensive care, according to his brother.

“So far we do not know how Juan came out alive from this,” said his brother, Jorge.

That collision led to another, ending with the rear end of a blue Toyota smashed, the trunk looking like an accordion pushed against the rear passenger seats. Two other vehicles, a green Chevrolet Explorer and a red Chevrolet Blazer, also were hit and sustained minor damage.

All the people from the damaged vehicles were taken to local hospitals for treatment.

Torrealba ditched the Mercedes in the middle of the road, jumped into a canal and entered a residential area.

Police cordoned off the area for the search, leading to several hours of congestion on Eighth Street and 107th Avenue.

Late Monday, police were continuing to search for him.

The passenger, St. Phar, was not charged.

Miami-Dade police are handling the investigation because a person, in this case the driver cut by the glass, was hurt as a result of the Sweetwater officers firing their weapons.

Baez said one officer who ran after Torrealba was treated and released from a hospital for minor injuries after he fell.

Anyone with information about Torrealba is asked to call Miami-Dade Crimestoppers, anonymously, at 304-471-8477.

Miami Herald staff writer Diana Moskovitz contributed to this report.