HOMESTEAD, Fla.
A family is mourning a woman who police said was struck and killed by a police cruiser Saturday on U.S. 1, just south of Datran Drive.
Just after 11 p.m., Amarilys Soto had just gotten off a cross-county ride on Metrorail. She was crossing U.S. 1 to meet her sister, who had come from Homestead to pick her up, when a police cruiser driven by on-duty Pinecrest police Officer Eduardo Blineau hit her.
Soto was airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital but died of her injuries.
"There were a ton of officers, there was fire rescue," said witness Jessica Gonzalez. "I saw them doing CPR, trying to resuscitate the person."
At the mobile home in Northeast Miami-Dade where Soto lived, friends hadn't heard that the driver who had hit her was an on-duty police officer.
"Getting this news was really hard to accept, I didn't want to believe it," said a friend who asked to remain anonymous. "Then some of her family members showed up looking for some of her possessions and that's when the truth hit."
Blineau was working the overnight shift. He was on his way to the Pinecrest station at the time of the crash.
The Florida Highway Patrol's report indicated Blineau had the green light and that Soto stepped in front of his car.
Blineau was not home Wednesday. He is on paid leave.
The chief of the Pinecrest Police Department issued a statement Wednesday expressing condolences and saying that Blineau is distraught over the accident.
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