Drag racer purposely hit Miami-Dade lieutenant trying to stop him

MIAMI – A Royal Palm Beach man faced an attempted murder charge in Miami-Dade County after authorities accused him of purposely hitting a police lieutenant who was trying to stop him after he participated in an illegal “intersection takeover” early Sunday morning.

According to police, Tristan Lawson, 22, would end up leading officers on a tri-county pursuit.

According to an arrest report, at around 1:30 a.m., Miami-Dade police officers were conducting a detail to bust illegal intersection takeovers at the intersection of Northwest 61st Street and 17th Avenue, along the border between Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood and the unincorporated Gladeview area.

Police said Lawson was driving a red Dodge Charger and was drifting in the intersection as spectators looked on.

After he finished, he drove away and police flipped their lights on in order to pull him over, the report states. Police said officers, including the lieutenant, got out of their cars at Northwest 66th Street and 17th Avenue and ordered Lawson to stop.

Instead, Lawson “made eye contact with the lieutenant and proceeded to accelerate and strike him with his vehicle,” police wrote, causing him to land on the vehicle’s hood and fall to the ground.

According to the arrest report, Lawson then took off, eventually making it onto Interstate 95, where authorities tracked him with a helicopter all the way to Forest Hill Boulevard in West Palm Beach.

They said Lawson and two others got out of the vehicle and ran into the woods, but a Boynton Beach police K-9 officer was able to track down Lawson and one of his passengers. Police said Lawson later confessed to hitting the lieutenant.

In addition to a charge of attempted first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer, Lawson faces charges of aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer, resisting an officer with violence and fleeing and eluding.

Additionally, police cited him for drag racing and reckless driving.

Lawson was being held without bond in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center as of Monday afternoon.