Heat and smoke building up inside a speeding white Audi apparently brought down two female suspects after a high-speed police chase led them on a circuitous race from Opa-locka to a smoking stop at Northwest 44th Street and Northwest 16th Avenue just after 5:15 p.m. Thursday.
Opa-locka officers responded to a fraud call when one of the officers was assaulted by one of the women. The two suspects bolted into the Audi sedan before 5 p.m. and fled with at least four police cars on its tail and a helicopter above.
The car, with temporary tags, continued for some 20 minutes, racing through residential neighborhoods, skirting between two cars, narrowly avoiding another while blowing through a stop sign while making a right turn onto intersections along 21st Avenue and 46th Street and surrounding blocks.
At one point, the car began trailing plumes of smoke from its undercarriage as police choppers flew overhead. The heaviest clouds of smoke seemed to dissipate during the chase, leaving what appeared to be vapor trails as speeds topped 50 miles-per-hour, but the 20-minute chase ended when the driver pulled over onto a berm near several homes and trees. Officers from Miami-Dade and Opa-locka moved in, guns drawn, and removed the driver and passenger from the vehicle.
Both women were taken into custody as flames began to lick the underside of the car and ignite a small patch of grass. Miami-Dade firefighters put out the flames.
Copyright 2013 - The Miami Herald
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
