‘I thought I lost my brother’: Family of juveniles involved in police pursuit & crash

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    FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (WFOR) — Relatives of those who were taken into custody after leading law enforcement on a chase that ended in a crash along I-95 are speaking out.

“It was devastating and it hurt me so bad. I thought I lost my brother,” says Kahmari Craig.

He said his 16-year-old brother Rashan remains in the intensive care unit at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital.

Rashan and four other juveniles were inside the SUV that was involved in a chaotic chase on I-95 in the middle of the morning rush hour Wednesday.

The driver of the SUV lost control after clipping two other vehicles and slammed into a guard rail before flipping over near the Pembroke Road exit ramp.

“He was hanging out, you can see it on the video,” says Craig.

Chopper4 was over the scene as law enforcement followed the SUV by ground and by air as it swerved in and out of lanes.

After the crash, FHP troopers and police quickly surrounded that vehicle and began pulling out suspects.

Toya says her 16-year-old nephew was behind the wheel.

“I’m not justifying the kids’ behavior, they were wrong, but I think the police could have handled it better than what they did,” she said.

Toya said she is still waiting for answers about her nephew.

“We don’t even know the condition yet,” says Toya.

It all began just before 7 a.m. when Fort Lauderdale police got a call about multiple people trying to steal a car near E Oakland Park Boulevard and Bayview Drive.

Police tried to stop the vehicle, but the driver kept going. The SUV hit a bicyclist at an intersection near Broward Boulevard and I-95. The bicyclist, Michael Evans, was taken to Broward Health with multiple injuries to his head, neck and back.

The Florida Highway Patrol got involved when the driver hopped on the interstate headed south.

Sharon Glueck’s vehicle was clipped seconds before the crash.

“I spun around, I saw another car being hit and when I finally stopped police had drawn their guns and they told me to quickly get to the side of the road and wait there to be safe,” says Glueck.

The Florida Highway Patrol is heading up the investigation into that crash that ended the pursuit, meanwhile, Fort Lauderdale Police are investigating the attempted car theft and burglary.

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