Jun 19, 2009 5:23 pm US/Eastern
MacArthur Cswy Carjacking, Shooting Scars Driver
MIAMI BEACH (CBS4) ―
The MacArthur Causeway has reopened hours after the armed carjacking of a taxi ended with a head-on collision and a shootout with Miami Beach police officers.
The victim of that carjacking, 34-year-old Robertaud Toussaint of Miami Gardens tells us, "God was there. God saved me." Touissant, who's been driving cabs for Central taxi for the past 2 1/2 years, says, "I was very scared. I was very scared."
CBS4 spoke to Toussaint inside his home in Miami Gardens, where he had a bandage wrapped around his head and was confined to a bed while recovering.
Miami Beach police Detective Juan Sanchez, said the taxi driver was carjacked late Thursday at 3rd Street and Alton Road on South Beach by a man armed with a gun. The suspect hit Toussaint in the head with the gun and took off with his taxi, said police.
The carjacker then fled across the causeway, which links Miami Beach and downtown Miami, but he was driving west toward Miami while in the eastbound lanes, against traffic.
Police said the man crashed head-on into another car, and jumped from the taxi in an effort to flee police. When he got out of the taxi, he exchanged gunfire with officers. He was hit and taken to Ryder Trauma Center where he was pronounced dead.
The mother of the driver involved in the head-on accident, Gina Mondecir, was not hurt, police said. We stopped by a family home in Fort Lauderdale, where Gina's mother Marie told us she was relieved her daughter was ok. "Thank God nothing happened to her," she said. "Thank God, after a collision like that on the Causeway."
Toussaint was treated for his head injury at Mt. Sinai Medical Center and released. Toussaint told CBS4's Peter D'Oench that his faith got him through this ordeal and he will never drive a taxi cab again.
Toussaint said he thought he was in a safe area when the carjacking happened. He says he thought it was so safe that he felt comfortable taking a nap in his car. "I fell asleep in the car," he told us. "I couldn't believe it. I couldn't understand that something like that would happen to me in that area."
Toussaint said he realized that driving a taxi is considered one of the most dangerous jobs in the U.S., according to O.S.H.A., the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. "Oh, yes, it is a very dangerous job," he said. "All he wanted was the car, not cash."
Lennard Shapkin, the owner of Central Cab, told us he was trying to establish a fund at a local bank for Toussaint. "That's all I can do at this point," said Shapkin.
The carjacking, crash and shooting led to a complete closure of the MacArthur Causeway for hours as police launched their investigation. Police shut all lanes down immediately after the crash and shooting in order to question as many as 100 people who were on the causeway and may have witnessed the chase and shooting.
Police have not identified the dead carjacking suspect or the names of the officers involved in the shooting. The officers involved in the shooting will be put on paid administrative leave while the investigation continues.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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