A woman recalled the scary moments she encountered a man who investigators say shot at two people in Hollywood Beach and later crashed his car in Hallandale Beach after trying to get away from police.
Read more Cherfilus-McCormick intends to run for reelection as Dems challenge new redistricting maps
Liz Kutis said she was at Hollywood Beach last Thursday when she noticed her friend recording someone.
“He was like, ‘I didn’t like the guy, the guy was very rude to me and I didn’t do anything,'” Kutis said.
The man then said something to her friend.
“He was like, ‘What are you looking at?’” Kutis recalled. “You feel in your gut that something is wrong.”
Moments later, she heard gunshots.
“Pow, pow, pow, five to seven gunshots,” Kutis said. “I was thinking, this is not true.”
Moments after that, Kutis saw the same man running.
“I felt like this person is not normal, so I was avoiding eye contact with this person,” she said.
Read more Woman scammed 87-year-old widow out of $100k in romance scam, warrant says
The man she saw was Tyrell Thomas, who police said walked up to two people on the beach and told them to get out of the way. Both men told police they tried to walk away, and Thomas told them, “I got something for you.”
According to investigators, Thomas ran to his car, grabbed a gun, went back to the beach and shot at both men. One of them jumped in the water to avoid getting shot.
The arrest report mentions a third person who said she saw Thomas shoot at both men and then turned to her and said, “You’re looking, you’re looking.” The woman told police she lay down and called 911, trying not to draw more attention to herself.
Police found the car Thomas drove off in and tried to pull him over, but he didn’t stop. According to the arrest report, at one point, Thomas drove the opposite direction of traffic and ultimately crashed into two cars in Hallandale Beach. Officers later caught up with him.
Kutis is grateful that she and everyone else are OK.
“This is scary, you could be shot for no reason,” Kutis said. “My gut feeling was right, not to be, when you’re seeing this person not in a good mental state, you just have to avoid.”