A suspect who police said opened fire on another driver in Doral then allegedly shot at officers during a chase in southwest Miami-Dade said the entire incident began because he was rushing to get to work.
Lawrence Collier, 28, was arrested on charges including attempted second-degree murder, aggravated assault and fleeing and eluding police in the Thursday morning incident.
The incident began in Doral, when officers responded to a road rage call involving shots fired in the area of Northwest 87th Avenue and 36th Street around 8 a.m.
According to an arrest report, Collier told investigators he was in a rush to get to work at Carnival Cruise Lines so when he got to the intersection, he was honking at another driver because he wanted him to move over.
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Collier claimed the other driver got out of his vehicle with a machete, so he grabbed his girlfriend's pink handgun from the glove compartment, the report said.
But the victim said he was sitting at a red light when a man in a white Volvo started honking at him, so he got out to ask what the man was honking at.
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He said the gunman pointed the pink gun at him and told him to move, then fired a shot into the back of his truck, the report said.
Collier claimed he fired a round at the ground to scare off the other driver, the report said.
The victim was able to take a photo of Collier's license plate as he fled, the report said.
A camera in the truck also captured Collier pointing the gun at the victim, police said.
A short time later, a Doral officer spotted Collier's car in a parking lot off Northwest 87th Avenue.
The officer said Collier told the officer he wanted to talk to her but when a second officer arrived and tried to take him into custody, Collier got in his Volvo and fled, nearly running over the second officer, the report said.
Collier told investigators he had flagged down the officer to tell her what happened but that the other officer pointed a gun at him, so he fled in fear, the report said.
The Florida Highway Patrol and Miami-Dade Police joined the pursuit as the car entered the Palmetto Expressway traveling southbound and eventually got onto the Don Shula Expressway, where Collier reportedly fired shots at officers around Killian Parkway.
"Throughout the pursuit the individual shot at Doral police officers as the vehicles were pursuing him," FHP spokesman Alex Camacho said. "As he was actively fleeing, he shot his firearm at the Doral officers."
But Collier denied shooting at the officers during the chase and said he only pointed the gun at them "because he did not know if they were dirty cops," the report said.
The car continued to flee onto the Florida's Turnpike heading southbound, then the car went into the northbound lanes before heading southbound again.
FHP troopers used a PIT maneuver on the car near the Turnpike and U.S. 1 in Florida City, and the car eventually lost control and crashed into a guardrail, officials said.
Collier was taken into custody and later booked into jail. No officers or civilians were injured in the incident.
"This is a bizarre situation. I think any individual that tries to use deadly force on a police officer, I think law enforcement will always have a zero tolerance approach on that, we will use every resource available to make sure that these individuals are apprehended and are held accountable," Camacho said.
