It was supposed to be just another routine patrol shift. In the early hours of Tuesday morning, a Miami Gardens police officer was cruising southbound on 27th Avenue, doing exactly what officers do in the middle of the night, keeping the streets safe for everyone else. What happened next was anything but routine.
Around 2:40 a.m., the officer approached the intersection at 167th Street, where a black Dodge Charger came flying through a red light and slammed directly into the police SUV. The impact was so violent that the SUV spun around multiple times. The officer became trapped inside. The Charger caught fire, with the driver and passengers still in it, according to reports.
Surveillance footage released Thursday captured the whole terrifying sequence in painful clarity. In an instant, one officer’s night turned into a trauma flight, and one driver’s alleged bad decisions turned into a criminal record. The crash left three people hospitalized and a community asking the same question it always does after something like this: how does this keep happening?…