‘It was just a homeless person,’ driver in fatal hit-and-run tells Miami police
.jpg "A woman was killed in a hit-and-run crash in Little Havana. Miami Police have identified and arrested the driver.")
Ivana Gomez was speeding down Southwest Seventh Street in Little Havana when a Miami police officer spotted her. As he sped to catch up, the driver hit a woman — who died in the street moments later, police say.
Around 1:15 a.m., Gomez, 32, raced past Officer A. Fernandez at a “very high rate of speed” in her blue 2019 BMW 330i, an arrest report says. When Fernandez followed, he witnessed the driver hitting the pedestrian and then driving on.
The collision was so hard that the victim’s hair would later be found on Gomez’s windshield and inside the car.
Gomez wasn’t stopping, so the officer turned on his lights and sirens, but she still wasn’t pulling over. She eventually stopped when she came to a red light at Beacom Boulevard, where two cars were in front of her, the report read.
The officer approached her driver’s side window and immediately smelled a strong odor of alcohol from her breath, the report read. Gomez also had bloodshot, watery eyes.
She was the only one in the car and was arrested. When she was in the back of a patrol car, police said, “she spontaneously stated that it was just a homeless person that I hit and it is just an accident.”
Gomez was charged with leaving the scene of a crash involving death and resisting an officer without violence.
“[Gomez’s] disregard for human life by fleeing the scene and possibly being under the influence of an alcoholic beverage demonstrates a reckless and wanton disregard for the safety of others,” the report read.
Miami-Dade Circuit Judge William Altfield set Gomez’s bond at $251,500 for both charges during a Saturday bond court hearing, according to records. As of the afternoon, she still remained in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.
Local 10 News reported the victim was 41-year-old Katherine Kipnis. Her cousin appeared at the hearing and told the court, through tears, “A shining light has been taken from this world because of the defendant’s irresponsibility,” she said. “It shocks my conscience that someone could drive through a human being — strike a person — and try to get away with it. I can’t imagine anything more disgraceful.”
This story was originally published May 30, 2025 at 7:54 AM.
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