A chase ended with a Hallandale cop firing 12 shots. Here’s the police explanation.
A car running a red light started a Hallandale-to-Hollywood police chase in the early-morning hours Sunday that ended with a suspect hit with two of 12 shots fired, according to Hallandale Beach police.
Sgt. Edward Diaz, a 19-year Hallandale Beach cop, told Hallandale Beach Det. Michael Springer he saw driver Joseph Knowles “holding an AR-style rifle at which time Sgt. Diaz became in fear for his safety as well as the safety of the public.”
That’s from the arrest reports for Hallandale Beach police for Dania Beach resident Knowles, 22, and West Park resident Jamari Dobard, 21.
Knowles was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries. He’ll be charged with committing a third-degree felony with a weapon, resisting an officer by fleeing or eluding a law enforcement officer with lights and siren active, disobeying a flashing red signal, driving on the wrong side of the road and making an improper left turn.
Dobard, now sitting in the Broward main jail, is charged with possession of a weapon by a convicted felon, obstructing an officer without violence and warrants from Okeechobee and St. Lucie counties.
The report says it all started around 1 a.m. Sunday when Knowles ran a blinking red light as he crossed Foster Road while heading north on Northwest Eighth Avenue in his 2000 Honda. Knowles pulled into the Orion gas station at 1011 NW Eighth Ave. Officer Jennifer Higgins, with Hallandale Beach police since 2011, hit the lights and siren on her police cruiser.
Knowles, the report says, sped off. He swung out of the gas station onto westbound Pembroke Road, ignoring a Right Turn Only sign.
“As the vehicle was traveling towards I-95, Officer Higgins observed the passenger door open and observed [Dobard], who she knew and recognized from previous encounters, place his feet on the ground as if he was attempting to bail out of the vehicle,” Dobard’s arrest report reads. “She also observed him to be holding a black firearm in his right hand as he held the passenger door open with his left hand.”
Dobard stayed in the shotgun seat as Knowles got onto Interstate 95 northbound. Knowles took the next exit, which was Hollywood Boulevard. Knowles headed toward the traffic circle surrounding City Hall. Before he got there, police say, he hopped into the westbound lanes while still going east.
Before they got to the circle, the report says, the duo abandoned the car to make a run for it through the Shell gas station on the northwest bend of the traffic circle. Diaz got out of a car trailing Higgins and went after Knowles.
That’s when Diaz said he saw Knowles holding an AR rifle, identified in a Hallandale Beach police release as an AR-15. Diaz fired 12 shots.
Dobard eventually was found sitting at a Miami Subs a block west on Hollywood Boulevard from the Shell. Police say after a three to four-hour search, about 70 yards behind where the Honda stopped, they found a black Beretta handgun that matched Higgins’ description of Dobard’s firearm.
This story was originally published December 9, 2019 at 5:24 PM.
