Miami-Dade man shot a woman, stole a car, fled from police and crashed, police say
A man who shot a woman in the arm before stealing a car, fleeing from cops and crashing on a highway in southwest Miami-Dade was arrested Tuesday, according to police.
Michael James Clark, 52, faces charges including attempted felony murder, strong-arm robbery and aggravated fleeing from an officer, county court records show. The Miami-Dade resident remained at the county’s Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center as of Tuesday evening.
Officers hurried at around 12:15 a.m. Tuesday to the area of Southwest 137th Avenue and Southwest 268th Street following a 911 call about a shooting, police said in a news release. There, first responders found a woman known to Clark with a gunshot wound to her arm. Paramedics took her to a hospital in stable condition.
Investigators said they believe that Clark shot her before stealing a 2003 Buick Park Avenue and fleeing the scene.
According to Clark’s arrest report, Palmetto Bay units spotted the stolen car hours later at Southwest 152nd Street and South Dixie Highway and tried to conduct a traffic stop. Cops say Clark refused and sped away, and a police chase began.
The pursuit ended, the report says, when Clark sideswiped two vehicles, damaging the Buick’s front left tire and causing the car to become undrivable. He was then arrested around 10:15 a.m. Tuesday at Don Shula Expressway (State Road 874) and Killian Parkway, police said.
Clark’s attorney information wasn’t available Tuesday night.
A previous attack?
During the investigation, the victim told detectives that she and Clark had a “verbal dispute” on Monday night, according to a second police report. She told police that around 10 p.m. Clark took her cellphone from her hand before he started to hit and choke her in his home on the 26000 block of Southwest 138th Court.
Clark then gave the cellphone back to her and allowed her to leave the residence, the report states.
Long history of arrests
This was not Clark’s first interaction with police. In fact, his arrest record goes back to the 1980s, county court records show.
In February, he was charged in a Miami-Dade court with attempted aggravated battery against a police officer and resisting an officer without violence. Those charges are pending and a trial hearing is scheduled for July 3.
In 2021, Clark pleaded guilty in a Miami-Dade court to strong-arm robbery, attempted kidnapping, battery on a person 65 or older and third-degree grand theft in connection with crimes carried out two years earlier. He was sentenced to two years in state prison. He was then released in April 2021, Florida Department of Corrections records show.
In 2012, he pleaded guilty in a Miami-Dade court to two counts of attempted armed robbery and two of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, and he was sentenced to five years in prison.
Clark has also been convicted of additional charges throughout his lifetime including robbery, burglary, battery, violation of probation and cocaine possession.
