A man is facing multiple felony charges, including fleeing law enforcement, after taking police on a dangerous high-speed chase through Broward County.
On May 21, an officer from the Margate Police Department was on a regular patrol when he saw an Infiniti sedan at the intersection of Northwest 31st Street and North SR7. The dark window tint and loud modified exhaust of the car caught the officer’s attention.
According to the report, the officer turned on his emergency lights and followed the car as it drove west towards the door to the Toscana Apartment Complex.
As the officer got closer, he could tell that the driver was trying to get away from the traffic stop. As he got closer, the driver, later named as Joshua Travon Oliver, 31, of Tamarac, made a U-turn at the complex gate and sped back eastbound.
Oliver ran a red light and turned back north on SR7 toward Coral Springs in what the officer said was a dangerous attempt to get away from the police.
The officer wrote in his report that he gave up trying to stop the car because he knew that such high-speed chases at night were dangerous and he was worried about the safety of other people.
Instead of continuing to chase Oliver, the cop turned off all the emergency equipment and drove around the area, looking for him.
A few hours later, the officer saw Oliver’s Infiniti again at the intersection of Sample Road and Lyons Road. The officer wrote in the report that Oliver didn’t seem to know he was being watched by the police and drove at a normal speed.
When the officer realized he needed help from above, he called the Broward Sheriff’s Office Aviation Unit. They came right away and took to the air, following Oliver as he got on the Florida Turnpike and drove south.
The chase went west on I-595 and then north on the Sawgrass Expressway, according to the records. Oliver finally got off on Pat Salerno Boulevard, turned north on Flamingo Road, and went east on Oakland Park Boulevard.
After a long chase, police from the Plantation Police Department used spike strips to stop Oliver’s car, according to the report. The plan worked, and Oliver’s car stopped at 9400 West Oakland Park Blvd. after driving over the spikes, where a high-risk stop was made.
Oliver was caught and taken to the Broward County Main Jail. After paying a $7,500 bail, he was let out of jail.