OCEAN CITY — A Virginia woman was arrested on first-degree assault and other charges last weekend after allegedly accelerating her vehicle and colliding with a man in an uptown shopping center parking lot.
Around 9:20 p.m. last Saturday, an Ocean City Police Department (OCPD) officer responded to a reported hit-and-run collision in the parking lot of the Montego Bay shopping center. The caller advised police a red SUV had struck a male in the parking lot. The caller told police the male had kicked the vehicle and the driver, later identified as Miriam Flores, 50, of Sterling, Va., accelerated the vehicle and drove into the male.
According to police, the victim was able to limp away from the scene, but Flores circled back around and picked him up. The victim got back in the vehicle and the red SUV drove off south on Coastal Highway. The caller kept visual contact with the vehicle until it turned a traffic signal near a hotel.
An OCPD officer in the area of 127th Street observed a couple later identified as Flores and the male who had been struck at the shopping center parking lot. As the officer watched, Flores shoved the male, who then put his hands around Flores’ neck. The officer interceded at that point and broke the couple up.
The witness was brought to the scene and positively identified Flores as the driver who had struck the victim and the male who had been struck by the vehicle. OCPD officers interviewed two other witnesses at the scene, who reportedly told police they had observed the male kick the vehicle before the red SUV with Flores behind the wheel accelerated toward him, knocking him down.
The witnesses each told police the male victim limped away from the scene before Flores returned and helped him get back into the vehicle. Flores and the victim then drove south on Coastal Highway before they were detained at 127th Street.
Flores was arrested on charges of first- and second-degree assault and disorderly conduct at that point. Meanwhile, several guests at a nearby hotel observed the commotion from their rooms, according to police reports.
Ocean City Communications obtained video surveillance footage from the town’s fire station at Montego Bay. According to police reports, the video footage showed the red SUV appear to strike the male victim. When the male victim kicked the vehicle, the red SUV accelerated toward him, striking him and causing him to fly over the hood. At the scene, Flores reportedly did not complete field sobriety tests to the officers’ satisfaction and additional drunk-driving charges were tacked on.
