A South Florida cop has been kicked off the force nearly two years after being involved in a wrong-way police chase that ended in a fatal crash.
Opa-locka Police have fired Officer Sergio Perez nearly two years after the March 2013 crash on I-95 that claimed the lives of four people.
Police said Willie Dumel was speeding away from a police pursuit and heading north in the southbound lanes of I-95 when he crashed head-on into a car near Ives Dairy Road.
Four people who were in the car were killed. Dumel survived and faces four counts of vehicular homicide.
"Our theory is that the officer's actions contributed to the crash," said Andy Rier, Dumel's attorney.
Rier said the fact that Opa-locka police fired Perez supports his contention that Perez somehow forced Dumel to flee.
"It's our belief that Mr. Dumel thought that he had no choice and that his life was in danger and that's what led to the collision," Rier said.
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"We're very sorry that those people died but in no way should Sergio Perez be blamed for their deaths," Perez's lawyer, Jim Casey, said in a phone interview.
Casey said blame rests squarely on the shoulders of Dumel, that Perez did not follow him up I-95, and a crash witness agrees.
"Police were not behind him on I-95 chasing him," witness Jeff Koppelman said.
But the officer's own radio transmission during the chase seems to indicate that he did.
Police wouldn't comment on the firing. Casey said he thinks Perez will be vindicated at arbitration.
The victims' families have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the City of Opa-locka and the police department.
