Teen died hours after police car chase and crash in Miami. Family questions emergency care

Driving a car stolen at gunpoint, 16-year-old Christopher Walls led Hollywood police on a chase that ended when he spun out of control in Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood. The black Alfa Romeo Giulia smashed into a concrete pillar with enough force that the car suffered extensive damage and the airbags deployed.

Police officers immediately called Miami-Dade Fire-Rescue. But despite the severity of the crash, the teenager was not taken to a hospital that night of Nov. 14. Instead, paramedics cleared Walls and left. He sat in a Hollywood patrol car for over two hours — until he collapsed while being moved to a Miami-Dade police car.

Miami-Dade Fire-Rescue paramedics were forced to return to the scene, this time rushing Walls to Hialeah Hospital, where doctors eventually pronounced him dead.

Two months after Walls died, as state agents continue their probe into Walls’ death, the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s Office is still conducting its investigation into his cause of death. His parents, agonized by not knowing the details surrounding Walls’ death, believe their son could have been saved.

“We want to know why he wasn’t taken to the hospital after this bad accident,” said his stepfather, Willie Newkirk, 46, of West Park, speaking publicly for the first time this week. “We have a lot of questions and no answers.”

This week, a Miami-Dade Fire-Rescue spokeswoman told the Herald that Walls refused to be transported to a hospital — and told paramedics he was an adult. His family bristled at the notion that Walls could have been mistaken for an adult. The parents said state agents told them Walls had his ID on him.

“He didn’t deserve this,” said his mother, Traneice Jiles, 41. “He was still loved by a lot of people. He had a lot of support and love.”

Hollywood and Miami-Dade police departments have deferred comment because of the ongoing probe by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which handles in-custody deaths that happen in Miami-Dade jurisdiction. The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office will eventually review the case to determine if officers broke any laws in their handling of Walls.

Investigators are also probing a claim from a reported eyewitness who told WPLG-ABC10 that he believed officers were kicking the teen when he was pulled from the Alfa Romeo. But video given to the station is so grainy, dark and distant that it’s impossible to tell exactly what is happening.

The president of the police union representing Hollywood police said any allegations of excessive force “are unfounded.”

“The officers of HPD put themselves in great peril to try to apprehend a very violent and dangerous person. They acted with great professionalism and with great restraint with a combative subject who was refusing to be handcuffed,” said Rod Skirvin, the president of the Broward County Police Benevolent Association.

‘Charming Kid’

Walls, a sophomore at Hallandale High who also played football at a league at Hallandale Park, grew up in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. He wanted to one day be a rapper, or work dealing in stocks and bonds, his family said.

“He was a charming kid. A jokester. He liked to laugh, play around. He was respectful,” Newkirk said.

Those bad decisions had landed him in trouble with police before. Since early 2020, records show, Walls had been arrested a number of times, including on charges of burglary, motor vehicle theft and fleeing and eluding police.

His life had also been marked by a similar tragedy. His namesake father was Christopher Walls, who in 2007 was arrested and charged with murdering a bail bondsman in Northwest Miami-Dade. The elder Walls, 32, made the news twice more that year. After his arrest, he passed out after he was accidentally left inside a hot corrections van parked outside a Miami-Dade jail. The following month, he hanged himself inside his jail cell.

Fourteen years later, his son would also die in law-enforcement custody.

Before he died, the younger Walls had gone to stay the weekend with his sister, family said. After he disappeared, his parents drove around searching for him, trying to trace his phone. It wasn’t until the following day that FDLE agents showed up to tell them the terrible news.

“He made a bad choice. He shouldn’t have died that night — not over a stolen car,” Newkirk said.

According to interviews, police reports from two agencies and Miami-Dade Fire-Rescue logs, this is what is known about Walls’ death:

The carjacking happened about 9 p.m. on Nov. 14, at a 7-Eleven gas station on the 3400 block of Sheridan Street in Hollywood.

The driver of the black 2018 Alfa Romeo told police that he was in line to get a car wash when two young armed men appeared, one on each side of his vehicle, and ordered him to get out. “Think we are playing? We’re not f--king around,” one of the carjackers said, according to a Hollywood police report.

The two carjackers stole the man’s wallet, then drove off in the Alfa Romeo. The man called 911 to report the carjacking.

A Hollywood police officer soon spotted the car along U.S. 441, and the car chase ensued, according to a Hollywood police report.

The Pursuit

By then only Walls was in the Alfa Romeo, and officers pursued the car south, winding up in the Liberty City area. The car spun out of control and crashed into a concrete pillar. The damage to the Alfa Romeo was extensive, according to aerial images: the pillar crushed in the passenger side, skewing the back wheel, mangling the doors and causing the air bags to deploy.

Miami-Dade Fire-Rescue received the 911 call for assistance from police at 9:36 p.m., as Hollywood police took him into custody.

Firefighter paramedics arrived at 9:41 p.m., just minutes later. By 9:54, they had cleared the scene, according to a Fire-Rescue report.

The details of that interaction remain unclear. A Miami-Dade police press release said fire-rescue “responded and treated the subject on the scene.” Miami-Dade Fire-Rescue, citing medical privacy laws, declined to say what that treatment entailed.

But a Fire-Rescue spokeswoman said Tuesday that the teen claimed to be an adult, and did not want to go to the hospital.

“If they tell you an age, and refuse transport, at that point, we can’t force anyone to go to the hospital,” spokeswoman Erika Benitez said.

Walls sat in a Hollywood police car until officers brought the victim of the carjacking to the crash scene in Liberty City for what is known as a “show-up” — when a victim identifies a culprit soon after a crime. “At this point, the victim advised that was in fact the suspect who robbed him at gunpoint on his driver side window,” a Hollywood police report said.

As police tried to get Walls back in the Hollywood patrol car, he refused and was shot with a Taser stun gun before he was placed back in the vehicle, according to a source with knowledge of the probe.

Walls was later taken into custody by Miami-Dade police, and as he was being moved to a Miami-Dade car, he “became unconscious,” according to the press release. At 12:14 a.m. — more than two-and-a-half hours after the crash — police again called 911 to summon Fire-Rescue.

‘Cardiac Arrest’

According to a Fire-Rescue report, paramedics administered CPR, the teen had no pulse and went into “cardiac arrest.” He was rushed to Hialeah Hospital. The Medical Examiner’s Office reports his time of death at 1:44 a.m.

Until a cause of death is determined, it remains unclear whether Walls could have been saved had he been rushed to the hospital at the onset.

The presidents of both the Miami-Dade and Broward police unions insisted the officers relied on Miami-Dade Fire-Rescue’s assessment.

“We rely heavily on Fire-Rescue for their clearance at the scene and they make the decision on whether a subject should be transported to a medical facility,” said Skirvin, of Broward’s PBA.

Said Steadman Stahl, of Miami-Dade’s PBA: “We as police officers rely on the expertise of Fire-Rescue when it comes to traffic accident injuries. If they said he was fine to be cleared, we would rely on that.”

Although the extent of the damage to his body — and whether he suffered any internal injuries — remains unknown, his parents reported that when they received the body for the funeral he had facial bruising and what appeared to be a broken jaw and nose. Whether that was caused by the accident is unclear.

For now, the family is awaiting the results of the autopsy and the state investigation.

“He was in a horrific accident — and he was a minor,” said the family’s attorney, Christine King. “It’s a tragedy all around. Whatever led him to that moment, he didn’t deserve to lose his life.”

This story was originally published January 12, 2022 at 1:00 AM.