A 19-year-old man was arrested following a pursuit of a stolen car that started in Miami-Dade County and ended with a foot chase through a Lauderhill apartment complex Thursday afternoon, and two of his passengers remain at large.
Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Alex Camacho said in an email Thursday evening that Miami-Dade Police Officers first saw the stolen white Honda sedan driving north on Florida’s Turnpike near Bird Road and attempted a traffic stop. The car had been flagged as one used during felony property crimes.
FHP troopers took over the pursuit once the sedan continued to flee, Camacho said. The pursuit continued north on the turnpike near State Road 836.
The sedan was seen on live footage about 5 p.m. driving against the flow of traffic before turning off the highway and into the parking lot of the Lauderhill Point apartment complex in the 3100 block of Northwest 19th Street.
Three men bailed out of the car and took off running through the complex and into several of the nearly 20 buildings to evade the officers following behind with K-9s.
Camacho identified the man arrested as Channing Howard.
Over a dozen Broward Sheriff’s Office and FHP trooper units were seen in the parking lot of the complex during the search. Several law enforcement helicopters flew over the apartment buildings.
Court records show Howard had been arrested on a grand theft auto charge in June. Detectives were surveilling the parking garage of an apartment complex that is known to be a place where cars stolen out of Miami-Dade are hidden when they saw Howard and anther person leave in a Range Rover, an arrest report says. It had been “freshly stolen” from Miami-Dade County.
That charge was dropped in August.
Howard also was arrested on a trespassing charge after deputies caught him and three others after bailing out of a stolen vehicle in Dania Beach, the arrest report says. That charge was also dropped, court records say.
Howard’s home address on his latest arrest report is on Northwest 19th Street, less than half a mile from the apartment complex where he and the others bailed out of the car Thursday.
