Video: Chase Begins after Fla. Officer Struck by Moving Car's Open Door

Feb. 9, 2022

A Doral police officer was struck by an open car door after a 30-year-old man punched the gas during a traffic stop, and a chase ensued.

By David J. Neal

Source Miami Herald

Traffic stop recalcitrance turned into battery with a car door, a car chase down Miami-Dade’s west side and a foot chase in Kendall, Doral police said.

When it ended, a Doral officer and Gabriel Gelpi-Rodriguez, 30, were taken to a hospital with minor injuries, Doral police public information officer Rey Valdes said.

Rodriguez then was booked into Miami-Dade Corrections custody on charges of aggravated battery of a law enforcement officer, battery of a law enforcement officer, resisting an officer without violence and two counts of fleeing or eluding a police officer. Rodriguez also was booked on two other, separate cases of felony fleeing and eluding an officer and misdemeanor resisting arrest without violence.

Valdes said when a Doral officer stopped Rodriguez on Northwest 36th Street east of the Palmetto Expressway around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Rodriguez opened the driver’s side door, but wouldn’t get out of the car. He then punched the gas, Valdes said, hitting the officer’s leg with the open car door as he zoomed away.

A chase ensued, with Doral joined by Miami-Dade police helicopters until Rodriguez crashed against a light pole in the 8400 block of Southwest 72nd Street. Rodriguez ran, but was caught and arrested.

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