Video shows FHP troopers deploying Tasers on hit-and-run driver on I-95 in North Miami – WSVN 7News | Miami News, Weather, Sports

NORTH MIAMI, FLA. (WSVN) – Authorities released video of troopers deploying Tasers several times during an intense takedown on Interstate 95 when, they said, a driver attempted to escape after hitting another car.

Dash camera video shows Florida Highway Patrol troopers throwing the man to the ground after deploying their Tasers following multiple escape attempts. Cellphone video posted online by Only In Dade also showed the cartoonish scene as a Taser-wielding trooper chased the man.

Investigators said the driver, identified as 32-year-old James Preston McDowell, came to a stop just north of Opa-locka Boulevard after colliding with a black Audi, pinning the Audi to a concrete barrier, then ditched his vehicle.

A trooper can be seen approaching McDowell, appearing to reach for her Taser. A confrontation ensues and McDowell runs off.

The Taser-wielding trooper attempted to follow McDowell, who circled back around toward his car.

Witness Yaroslav Yedynak said he had a front-row seat to the attempted escape.

“It was right next to me,” said Yedynak. “It got a little weird because he ran away, and then he turned around and ran back to his car again, almost, like, to get something, and then he ran again.”

McDowell is shown running back to his damaged car, opening the driver’s side door and reaching inside quickly before running off again.

Troopers followed him from their cruiser in the merge lane and attempted to deploy their Tasers on McDowell as he began weaving in between cars, including Yedynak’s black Honda Civic.

“I guess they Tased him because when he was running toward me, there was blood on his shirt,” said Yedynak.

The Taser’s prongs appeared to make contact with McDowell but did not appear to affect him as he kept running.

Troopers deployed their Tasers so many times, one trooper wrote in her arrest report, “I concluded that the subject was in an excited delirium state, possibly under narcotics.”

When authorities managed to get him under control on the ground, McDowell briefly slipped away one final time before he was wrestled back to the ground and placed in handcuffs.

McDowell faced a judge hours later.

“You were arrested for aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer, aggravated fleeing and eluding a police officer after accident or injury, resisting an officer with violence,” said Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Mindy S. Glazer.

McDowell has since bonded out of jail.

A 7News crew reached out to McDowell at his home for comment, but nobody was home.

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