Editor’s Note: This video contains disturbing language and images.
A bystander’s video captures the incident and was posted to Instagram.
WASHINGTON — A Bowie, Maryland, woman was fatally shot by police in Miami Beach, Florida, where she was celebrating her 22nd birthday.
The shooting happened at around 6:15 p.m. on Sunday, on what appears to be a crowded street and was captured on video and posted to a bystander’s Instagram.
Cariann Hithon was driving a black BMW at a high speed when she crashed into several vehicles. Police say she drove through a red light and one of the vehicles she struck was occupied.
A retired Miami-Dade detective, John Butchko, was in one of the cars Hithon allegedly hit, along with his passenger, Sean Ellsworth, a Miami Beach lawyer.
“It played out like a movie set with people running, screaming, car crashes, gunshots, an injured officer lying on his back on the ground — all within a minute,” Butchko told the Miami Herald.
In the video, onlookers standing around the crumpled car Hithon was in can be heard egging her to get out of the car.
“She will hit your a- -,” one woman can be heard saying.
Police officers quickly approached Hithon’s stopped car onfoot, while bystanders spoke to them. Witnesses on the busy street lined with sidewalk cafes said they saw a man getting out of Hithon’s car before the incident.
“They’re drunk,” a woman can be heard saying to the police.
As the police approached Hithon’s vehicle, the car suddenly accelerated, allegedly hitting one of the police officers. Onlookers screamed as Hithon sped past the crowd and gunshots rang out.
The black BMW driven by Hithon struck a white SUV then came to a stop. Hithon was struck by one or more rounds shot by one of the officers, police say. She was treated at the scene, then transported to a hospital where she died.
In a news conference, Miami police say Hithon was attempting to flee the scene of the crash.
Hithon’s father, a retired U.S. Navy Capt. told the Associated Press that the sequence of events described to him by police does not sound like his daughter.
“The only logical explanation in this situation is she panicked, and things just escalated out of control,” he said.
Cary Hithon says his daughter wanted to become a lawyer to help people.
“Being an attorney to help the underserved is something she wanted to do,” he told the AP on Tuesday. “She would have been a good one.”
The officer who was hit by the car was identified as David Cajuso. He was treated for a head injury and “undetermined at this time internal injuries,” an officer said at the news conference. Cajuso has since been released from the hospital.
The Miami Dade Police Department is investigating the officer-involved shooting. The name of the officer who fired at Hithon has not been released yet.
The news conference can be seen here.
A map of the area:
