SandyMaloneMiami, FL – Police have said the man who rammed his car through the back of a Miami Police Department substation on Friday morning did it intentionally.
Police evacuated the substation after the crash, and called the bomb squad, when officers found a suspicious package and a firearm inside the suspect’s vehicle, WPTV reported.
Miami police Chief Jorge Colina told WPLG that after reviewing surveillance video of the incident, detectives had determined the crash was intentional.
The incident began shortly after 7 a.m. on April 6, when a man driving a red Chevrolet Impala crashed his car into the rear utility room of the substation located at 1000 NW 62nd Street.
“We see him drive and then he approaches at a high rate of speed. He breaches the rear gate,” Chief Colina said. “If he would have stopped there, then perhaps there’s still a chance that it was accidental, but the fact that he continues, regains speed and then plows into the wall, leads us to believe that it was intentional.”
Police identified the driver as 36-year old Giftson Cherenfant.
The chief said that a brave Miami officer had driven his police vehicle up to the back of Cherenfant’s car to make sure the suspect couldn’t back out again, WPLG reported.
Miami Police Public Information Officer Kiara Delver said Cherenfant was pinned his car, and fire-rescue personnel had to cut the doors off the Impala to extricate him.
Cherenfant’s family told authorities that he had been behaving strangely over the past few days, but police said he hadn’t done anything in the past which would have indicated he might do something like run his car through a police station.
“There really is nothing in his history that would indicate why he would behave this way. He does have a history of narcotics use,” Chief. Colina said. “Our investigators have spoken to some family (members) of the driver of this vehicle, and they did express that over the last couple of days he was acting a bit peculiar.”
Cherenfant was transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital with minor injuries. Nobody else was hurt in the crash.