Fatal shooting by state trooper started with a speeding driver

Doll Pierre Louis was driving over the speed limit and being followed by a Florida Highway Patrol trooper on a motorcycle before the officer leaped onto the hood of Louis’ car and, fearing for his life, shot him.

“The probable cause to stop the vehicle was speeding,” FHP trooper and spokesman Joe Sanchez said Thursday.

Louis, 24, had been arrested 14 times the past seven years by three different police agencies, state records show. Most of the cases were dropped and he never spent any time in prison.

Louis died Wednesday after a brief run-in with FHP Trooper Misael Diaz that was captured on the surveillance camera of a nearby Chevron gas station. The 33-second video begins with Louis pulling his red Nissan Altima behind a white car at the intersection of Northwest 167th Street and 37th Avenue in Miami Gardens.

Facing south on 37th Avenue, Louis gently nudges the white car with the Altima, then backs up. That’s when Diaz pulls up alongside the driver’s side door with his motorcycle, gets off, and for some reason gets between the Altima and the white car and places his hand on the Altima’s hood.

When Louis slowly backs up, Diaz jumps onto the Altima’s hood fearing for his life, Sanchez said. But instead of exiting the vehicle, Louis begins making a U-turn with the trooper still clinging to the hood. He leaps off before the turn is complete.

Though it’s not clear on the video, before jumping off the car, Diaz fired into it, fatally striking Louis. Louis managed to maneuver the Altima eight blocks north before losing control and ramming head on into an SUV headed in the other direction at Northwest 175th Street.

Witnesses at the crash site said the collision was violent enough to send the Altima ricocheting into a fence at a nearby home. One witness said it also appeared that Louis was still alive when a resident pulled him from the vehicle and began giving him CPR.

Keloria Crooks, who lives near the crash scene, said it appeared Louis was shot twice in the arm and once in the chest. She also said Diaz was distraught when he saw Louis’ condition, dropped his bike and began pounding it.

“There were bullet holes through the front windshield,” Crooks said.

On Thursday, the FHP said the woman Louis hit was 60-year-old Emilie Bastien. She was taken to the hospital and released late Wednesday. Sanchez also said Thursday that Markisha Fenelon, 20, was in the passenger seat of Louis’ Altima during the odyssey and that she was slightly injured. She hasn’t been charged with a crime.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement records show Louis has a lengthy list of arrests dating back to when he was 15, though most of the cases were dropped and he never spent time in prison.

Some of the 14 charges he has faced the past nine years include burglary, strong-arm robbery and grand theft. But he has also been arrested for driving with a suspended license and possession of marijuana.

His brushes with the law, according to the FDLE, began in 2007 when Miami-Dade police busted him for attempted armed burglary. That case was dropped. The same year the same police department arrested him for strong-arm robbery. That case was also dropped.

In 2008, he was arrested and charged by Miami-Dade Schools Police for strong-arm robbery, for which he was acquitted, and burglary and grand theft. Those cases were dropped.

A robbery charge was also dropped in 2009. In 2013, Miami-Dade police arrested Louis for possession of marijuana. He pleaded no contest and his record was cleared. He also received a reckless driving charge that year.

Then in 2014, Broward sheriff’s deputies busted Louis for possession of marijuana and methamphetamines. It’s unclear if that case was resolved. The same year Miami-Dade police arrested him again, this time on charges of burglary and resisting arrest with violence. Both those cases were dropped.

Louis’ most recent arrest, the FDLE records show, was last September by Miami-Dade police. He was charged with burglary. That case was dropped.

There were no open warrants for Louis’ arrest in Miami-Dade County at the time of his death. Sanchez said the car he was driving was not stolen.

This story was originally published May 26, 2016 at 5:09 PM with the headline "Fatal shooting by state trooper started with a speeding driver."