Trooper hurt after man fled Broward traffic stop to avoid immigration arrest: FHP
A Florida Highway Patrol trooper was injured while struggling with a man who resisted being handcuffed during a traffic stop that escalated into an immigration enforcement arrest in Plantation, the agency said Tuesday.
The trooper pulled over a Ford F-150 pickup truck around 8 a.m. Monday on State Road 84, east of Southwest 136th Street. Six men were in the truck, including Jonathan Hernandez Guzman, 29, who’s a citizen of Mexico, according to FHP.
Hernandez Guzman provided his passport as identification and the trooper determined he had “immigration issues,” FHP’s arrest report states. The report did not mention why the trooper pulled over the pickup. Florida is one of several states that delegates federal immigration enforcement to state and local police.
The trooper placed handcuffs on Hernandez Guzman’s left wrist, but Guzman Hernandez “aggressively turned around” when the trooper tried to cuff his right wrist, according to the report. The rivets from the cuff cut the trooper’s hand, causing him to bleed and lose his grip on Hernandez Guzman.
He fled, hopping the highway divider that separates SR-84 and the New River Greenway. He then jumped into a canal and swam away.
Troopers, along with Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies and officers from both the Plantation and Davie police departments, set up a perimeter searching for Guzman Hernandez, the report states.
Shortly before 11 a.m., Plantation officers with search dogs found Hernandez Guzman hiding in the bushes of a nearby home, the FHP said.
He was booked into Broward County jail on charges of aggravated battery on a police officer and resisting arrest with violence. As of Tuesday, he remained in jail without bond, and on a U.S. Border Patrol immigration hold.
Paramedics took the trooper to the Cleveland Clinic, where FHP said he received nine stitches for the cut on his hand.
