HIALEAH, FL — A 35-year-old man who had been brought to a Hialeah hospital under a mental health order allegedly carjacked a woman from the facility’s parking lot Thursday morning and led law enforcement on a high-speed chase through northwest Miami-Dade County before police finally stopped him nearly six miles away.
Eugene Brown, identified by Hialeah police and confirmed by officials with the Florida Highway Patrol, now faces charges including carjacking, burglary, battery, and fleeing and eluding, according to authorities. The incident began at Palmetto General Hospital and drew in multiple law enforcement agencies before ending at the intersection of Northwest 17th Avenue and 79th Street just after 1 p.m. Brown remained behind bars Thursday evening at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center in West Miami-Dade. The case highlights the dangers that can arise when a person under an involuntary mental health hold escapes before an evaluation is completed.
The chain of events began Thursday morning when Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office deputies transported Brown to Palmetto General Hospital, located at 2001 West 68th Street in Hialeah, under a Baker Act order — a Florida law that allows authorities to hold individuals involuntarily for mental health evaluations for up to 72 hours. Brown fled the hospital shortly after arriving, before any evaluation could take place, according to Hialeah Police. Once in the hospital’s parking lot, police said Brown approached a woman who was getting out of her black Nissan Sentra, forced himself inside the vehicle, and drove away. As he fled, he struck another vehicle in the parking lot. Hialeah Fire Rescue responded to the scene and assessed the victim, who was later taken into the hospital for evaluation and treatment. Aerial footage from news crews showed paramedics attending to the woman on the scene while officers cordoned off a section of the parking area. One witness at the hospital described watching a man running before realizing what had actually happened. “Basically a guy running, a guy running from the cops, and then all of a sudden I thought he was caught by the cops, but then I realized that he had stolen the lady’s vehicle and just left the scene,” the witness told reporters.
Officers spotted the stolen Sentra in the area of 65th Street and 17th Avenue just before 1 p.m., at which point Brown accelerated and refused to stop, triggering a pursuit involving Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office deputies and Florida Highway Patrol troopers. During the chase, Brown ran at least one red light, drove on the wrong side of the road into oncoming traffic, evaded multiple attempts by officers to box him in, and struck several vehicles, including at least one Hialeah Police patrol car and multiple parked cars along his route. He also drove through a handicap parking sign, sending it to the ground. FHP troopers attempted Precision Immobilization Technique maneuvers — a tactic where the rear of a fleeing vehicle is struck to spin it out and bring it to a stop — at least three times before successfully disabling the Sentra on the fifth attempt, according to WSVN. Ysidro Reyes was among the drivers whose vehicle was struck during the chase. “They were chasing someone; no, he came through and hit me and hit a sign and kept going,” Reyes said. Hialeah Police confirmed they were not involved in the pursuit itself, though the carjacking and a related hit-and-run remained under their investigation as incidents that occurred within their jurisdiction.
The Baker Act, under which Brown had originally been brought to the hospital, is a critical tool used by Florida law enforcement to get individuals experiencing mental health crises into professional care. The law permits deputies or officers to transport a person to a receiving facility for evaluation when that individual appears to pose a danger to themselves or others. Once at the facility, medical staff are responsible for completing the evaluation and determining next steps — but Brown left before that process could begin. The incident raises procedural questions about how individuals brought under Baker Act orders are monitored upon arrival at hospital facilities, particularly during the gap between when they arrive and when formal evaluation begins. Hialeah Police have not publicly addressed whether the hospital followed standard protocols, and no statement from Palmetto General Hospital had been released as of Thursday evening. It is not yet publicly known what specific circumstances led deputies to Baker Act Brown in the first place.
The pursuit came to a dramatic end near Northwest 17th Avenue and 79th Street in northwest Miami-Dade, where an FHP trooper successfully performed a PIT maneuver that sent the Sentra spinning and crashing to a stop. Officers and troopers immediately surrounded the vehicle with weapons drawn. Brown, who was still wearing hospital scrub pants, was removed from the car and taken into custody, handcuffed face-down on the ground. Dramatic video captured by bystander Rodolfo Hernandez showed the moment officers moved in on the stopped vehicle. Hialeah Police confirmed Brown faces charges of burglary, battery, carjacking, and fleeing and eluding, and he was booked into Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. No injuries were reported during the pursuit itself, according to Hialeah Police, though the victim from the initial carjacking was taken to the hospital for evaluation after being assessed at the scene. Officials had not yet confirmed, as of Thursday evening, a full accounting of damage to all vehicles struck during the chase.
Witnesses near the end of the pursuit described a chaotic scene as the chase concluded in their neighborhood. Store clerk Ashley Bueso was working nearby when the Sentra came to a stop outside. “The car was coming through here, and the police kind of hit it, and he was turned around and surprised, and I saw police on top of cars pointing guns,” Bueso said. “It was kind of crazy as I saw a lot of them pursuing him.” Witness Nicole Rodriguez, who watched part of the pursuit unfold, noted how recklessly Brown had been driving throughout the chase. “Somebody could’ve really been hurt, he was going on the opposite side of traffic too, head on,” Rodriguez said. A witness who identified himself only as Luis described the final moments of the pursuit. “Once FHP came in they did a pit maneuver and flipped him around and got him,” Luis said. Another witness, who identified herself only as Nicole, said the scene was unlike anything she had witnessed before. “All of a sudden they had to call state troopers to do a pit maneuver. I saw them do a pit maneuver here at 79th Street and 17th Avenue. This was crazy how they had to get him,” she said.
As of Thursday evening, Brown remained in custody at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. Hialeah Police said their investigation into the carjacking and hit-and-run at Palmetto General Hospital is ongoing, and it had not been formally confirmed that the carjacking at the hospital and the vehicle stopped during the chase are definitively linked — though officials from multiple agencies said Brown was the individual involved in both. No hearing date had been publicly announced. Investigators had not released information about Brown’s criminal history or prior contacts with law enforcement.
