Man in stolen SUV charged after high-speed chase ends at Miami International Airport
A man seen driving in a stolen SUV was charged Wednesday after leading South Florida police on a rush-hour, high-speed chase that ended at Miami International Airport, authorities said.
Walter Lee Griggs, 58, was charged with fleeing from police and remained Wednesday afternoon at Miami-Dade County’s Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $2,500 bond, county jail records show. It was not immediately known whether he would be facing additional charges in Broward County, where the car was stolen.
According to court records, he has an active warrant connected to a 2018 case where he is accused of punching and strangling a woman in unincorporated Broward County.
Hours before the chase began, a black Chevrolet Tahoe was stolen around 9 p.m. Tuesday from Wilson Window Tint, 1860 N State Road 7 in Margate, Lt. Michael Druzbik, a spokesman with the Margate Police Department, told the Miami Herald. He said the SUV, which had numerous items from the window tint shop, was unoccupied when it was stolen.
But it was not until 5:06 a.m. Wednesday when a Miramar police officer spotted the vehicle near the Walmart Supercenter on University Drive, Tania Rues, a police spokeswoman, told the Herald. That officer then alerted the Broward Sheriff’s Office, she said.
“At one point in time, the vehicle did have stolen property that the occupant discarded in another area in Miramar and we were able to retrieve it,” Rues said.
Around 6:42 a.m., a multi-agency police chase, starting in Broward County, continued on southbound Interstate 95 and westbound State Road 112 — and ended at Miami International Airport with the Griggs in handcuffs, detective Argemis Colome, a Miami-Dade police spokesman, said in a statement.
The chase spanned from high speeds on the expressways to a crawling pace along the airport’s departure road before ending around 7 a.m. in front of the Air Surinam entrance at MIA.
A Broward Sheriff’s Office helicopter followed the stolen Chevrolet SUV during the chase, Colome said.
Just outside the airport doors, Miami-Dade officers led Griggs out of the SUV, cuffed and sat him down on the curb while police reinforcements arrived, helicopter footage from Miami Herald partner CBS News Miami shows.
Airport operations were not disrupted other than minor vehicle traffic delays, MIA spokesman Greg Chin told the Miami Herald in an email.
This story was originally published February 28, 2024 at 7:05 AM.
