Minnesota man leads police on high-speed chase again — this time in the Keys
A Minnesota man led a Florida Keys deputy on a high-speed car chase Monday night that ended with him crashing into another vehicle and his arrest on drug, weapons, resisting arrest, auto theft and hit-and-run charges, according to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office.
Gavin Richard Hill, 22, remained in county jail on a $300,000 bond Tuesday night. According to press reports from his home state, he has a long criminal history of fleeing from police in stolen cars.
The Monroe sheriff’s office said Monday’s incident began around 7:30 p.m. when a deputy tried to pull over the Toyota Corolla that Hill was driving because it had expired temporary tags, and the deputy saw Hill texting while he was operating the car.
After the deputy turned on his siren and flashing lights, Hill pulled over at mile marker 97.5 on U.S. 1 in Key Largo, according to his arrest report.
But when the deputy opened his car door, Hill drove away. While heading north on U.S. 1, and turning down several side roads, Hill was speeding and passing slower-moving cars on the shoulder of the highway, the report states.
The pursuing deputy radioed a colleague patrolling farther up the road, who laid down a strip of spikes to deflate Hill’s tires. The move worked, popping two tires, but he kept going, deputies said, this time driving north in the southbound lanes of the highway.
The chase ended only when Hill crashed his car into a Jeep that was turning into a local restaurant, deputies said. Instead of immediately giving up, Hill ran into a wooded area, deputies said. However, he realized there was no way out, so he surrendered.
Hill told deputies he didn’t want to stop for them because he knew his driver’s license had been revoked.
Medics checked out Hill and the driver of the Jeep, neither of whom had serious injuries, according to the report.
Deputies said they found 18 rounds of 9mm pistol ammunition inside the Toyota, along with multiple plastic bags containing a total of 13.2 grams of marijuana. They also found two phones, one of which was posting to Instagram live, according to the report.
Deputies also discovered that the Toyota did not belong to Hill. They called the owner, who lives in Pompano Beach. He told them Hill was renting the car from him, but he wanted it back because he had stopped paying him about three weeks ago. He told deputies that he tried reporting the car stolen, but local police told him the issue was a civil matter.
The Free Press, a newspaper in South Central Minnesota, reported that Hill has five arrests and at least three convictions for speeding away from police in cars he stole.
This story was originally published September 7, 2021 at 6:42 PM.
