A 23-year-old man was arrested on a first-degree murder charge Thursday after police say he struck a woman with his SUV in Miami and then fled the scene.
Miami police told Local 10 News that they reviewed surveillance video after the crash and concluded that the driver, Jonah Desaulniers, of Miami Beach, struck the victim “intentionally” and “maliciously.”
According to his arrest report, Desaulniers struck the victim, identified Friday as Mercedes Lopez, 71, just before 5:45 a.m. Thursday as she was walking in the area of Southwest 27th Avenue and 22nd Terrace.
Lopez was pronounced dead at the scene.
According to the arrest report, about five minutes later, Coral Gables police responded to a hit-and-run crash at the intersection of Miracle Mile and Salzedo Street.
A short time later, a police officer spotted a brown Honda SUV with front-end damage in the area of Southwest 32nd Avenue and Dixie Highway that matched the description of the vehicle involved in both hit-and-runs, authorities said.
Police said Desaulniers got out of his vehicle and was detained at the scene.
He was transported to Larkin Community Hospital for medical treatment before being booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, where he is being held without bond.
Desaulniers provided a statement to detectives, but the statement was redacted from the publicly released report.
While police said the initial hit-and-run was intentional, a motive remains unclear.
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