Fugitive arrested in Hialeah after ramming parked car and running away: police
A fugitive rammed a stolen Corvette into another car as officers had him boxed in at a Walgreens parking lot in Hialeah before running away Thursday afternoon, authorities say.
Cellphone video shot by a bystander then showed the man tripping and falling on his face as officers aggressively detained him moments later.
The video was posted by Only in Dade.
According to a Hialeah Police Department arrest report, officers identified 41-year-old Yam B. Perera Nuñez sitting in the driver’s seat of a gray 2025 Chevrolet Corvette that was parked at the drug store at 1155 West 68th Street. They surrounded the car to try to prevent him from leaving, but Perera Nuñez reversed the car and slammed into an unoccupied parked car, according to the report.
The tires spun as he kept accelerating, causing white smoke to fill the air, the report states. Cops say Perera Nuñez created the smoke so he could use it as cover to escape.
He bailed from the car, but didn’t make it far, as officers caught up with him and arrested him, according to the report and the video.
Authorities, including those with U.S. Homeland Security Investigations, had been looking for Perera Nuñez since Wednesday afternoon, Miami Herald news partner CBS News Miami reported. Police have not said why he was wanted, but a federal criminal complaint states Perera Nuñez was deported to Cuba in September, but apparently returned to the U.S.
The complaint states “law enforcement officers encountered [Perera Nuñez] in connection with a law enforcement investigation” on March 13 in Miami-Dade County. It’s not clear from the complaint what happened that day, but the agency that came in contact with him ran his file and found out he was a Cuban citizen who first came into the country in 1998 and was ordered removed last fall.
The Corvette that Perera Nuñez was driving was reported stolen from Miami Beach on March 23, which is 10 days after the encounter with law enforcement described in the federal complaint, according to his arrest report.
The removal order coincides with prosecutors in Highlands County in Central Florida dropping a felony fleeing-and-eluding charge against Perera Nuñez. In June, he led deputies on a high-speed chase in a Dodge Ram pickup truck while towing a stolen Takeuchi front-end loading excavator, according to a press release from the Highland County Sheriff’s Office.
Prosecutors did not go into detail in their memo announcing the charges had been dropped, only giving the reason as “Based on the facts and circumstances of the case.”
Perera Nuñez has a long criminal history throughout the state going back to 2003, with at least five convictions, including for grand theft and robbery, in Miami-Dade County alone, records show.
As of Friday, Perera Nuñez was being held at the Miami-Dade County Pre-Trial Detention Center on charges of grand theft auto, dealing in stolen property, knowingly driving with a suspended license, aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting officers with violence.
A judge set bond on some of the charges at $13,650, with bond pending on some of the other counts, including the charge of battery on law enforcement, jail records show. Information on his legal counsel was not immediately available.
