After a silver Kia fled a hit-and-run crash in Coral Springs, police looking for answers tracked the license plate number to a condominium complex.
There, at the Ramblewood East Condominiums in Coral Springs, they saw the door to an apartment open and found a woman lying dead on the floor with a baby boy next to her.
Now, authorities are investigating whether a 35-year-old man who was arrested in Coconut Creek after three car crashes, a deadly shooting and a robbery is connected to the woman’s death and the baby’s struggle to stay alive.
The name of the suspect was not released Friday evening, and police would not say what the suspect’s relationship to the 31-year-old woman who died and the baby boy is or what the woman’s relationship to the boy is.
Coral Springs Deputy Police Chief Brad McKeone said that the woman and baby, who is under a year old, both sustained head trauma. The boy was in serious condition at Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale.
Coral Springs Police said officers were called at 1:49 p.m. about a hit-and-run crash near Wiles Road. Two minutes later, officers began to pursue the Kia as it sped off on Sample Road but called off the pursuit.
Then, shortly after 2 p.m., the Broward Sheriff’s Office responded to a four-car crash, one being the Kia, and a shooting at Powerline Road and West Sample Road in Pompano Beach, said Gerdy St. Louis, a spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Office.
Three people were taken to the hospital after that incident — two had injuries from the crash and one man was shot multiple times. He later died at the hospital, St. Louis said.
When deputies went to investigate the shooting and crash in Pompano Beach, they realized the description of the Kia matched a be-on-the-lookout alert Coral Springs Police issued after the hit-and-run crash near Wiles Road.
The suspect fled the shooting and crash in Pompano Beach in one of the victims’ vehicles, St. Louis said.
The Sheriff’s Office Homicide Unit is investigating the shooting and the Traffic Homicide Unit is investigating the crash.
The 35-year-old man then caused a separate crash in Coconut Creek on West Sample Road and Northwest 42nd Avenue, plowing down a crosswalk, said Sgt. Scotty Leamon, a spokesperson for Coconut Creek Police. Two people were taken to the hospital as a result of that crash and are expected to recover.
After the man wrecked at 2:04 p.m., he drove into the parking lot of a Walgreens nearby and hit two parked cars, Leamon said, and robbed a woman at the Walgreens after bailing from the vehicle.
Then he ran across Lyons Road and into the Shell gas station where Coconut Creek Police took him into custody. The man was naked when he was apprehended, Leamon said.
He was taken to Northwest Medical Center in Margate. He is facing charges, in Coconut Creek alone, of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, strong-arm robbery, vehicle burglary, resisting arrest and leaving the scene of a crash, Leamon said.
This article has been updated to reflect that a fatal shooting in Deerfield Beach on Friday morning was not connected to these incidents.
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