Felony charges for one Broward teen suspect in car theft and crash that killed a woman
A Lauderhill 15-year-old has been charged with three felonies in the first batch of charges from Sunday’s tragic crash that killed a woman at an Oakland Park intersection.
Fort Lauderdale police said the 15-year-old they believe was driving a stolen Mercedes has been charged with grand theft auto, aggravated fleeing and eluding with serious injury or death, and resisting an officer without violence. The 13-year-old they believe was in the passenger seat has been charged with misdemeanors.
Though Fort Lauderdale police named the 15-year-old, the Miami Herald is not naming him because he has been charged as a juvenile so far.
More charges could be coming, as Broward Sheriff’s Office finishes the investigation into the crash that sent six people to a hospital, including the woman who was killed.
A WSVN-Channel 7 report quotes a man who said his pregnant sister was one of the people hospitalized. If the unborn child is lost as a result of the crash, there could be charges related to two deaths.
Fort Lauderdale police said burglars went into a home in the 2500 block of Mercedes Drive that a search of Broward County property records say has a connected garage and stole two cars as the residents slept in Sunday’s early hours. Just before 6 a.m., BSO says Fort Lauderdale officers saw one of the cars, a 2021 Mercedes-Benz E350, near Sunrise Boulevard and Powerline Road.
A chase began that ended, BSO said, when at the intersection of Powerline and Oakland Park Boulevard, the drivers of the stolen Mercdes ran a red light and T-boned a 2014 Chevrolet Cruze that spun and hit a 2017 Dodge Durango, both of which were going through the intersection on a green light.
Fort Lauderdale police say the two teens were in the Mercedes and ran, only to be arrested quickly. BSO said Oakland Park Fire Rescue ferried two people from the Dodge and four from the Chevrolet to a hospital. A woman who had been in the Chevrolet died at the hospital.
The WSVN report said juvenile court Judge Elijah Williams told the younger suspect: “You are 13 and charged with breaking and entering into somebody’s house while they were sleeping. You lucky they didn’t wake up and shoot you.”
