One man is dead, another is in custody and a third is missing after their car landed in a lake in Deerfield Beach while they fled from Broward Sheriff’s deputies early Tuesday morning, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
A little before 4 a.m., a 911 caller reported multiple people burglarizing unoccupied cars in a community near the 700 block of Deer Creek Lakeside Way, Carey Codd, a spokesperson for the Broward Sheriff’s Office, said in a news release. After deputies responded, the “suspect vehicle” fled, then drove into the lake near Lakeside Way and Lakeside Drive.
A little after 4 a.m., a deputy reported that the car was in a canal, according to archived police radio recordings.
“The car is 40, 50 feet out in the middle of the canal and they just went down with the vehicle and are not coming back,” one deputy can be heard saying.
One man made it out of the car and swam to land, at which point deputies arrested him. One of the deputies who was responding to the burglary went into the lake to try to rescue the others from the car, but did not succeed. BSO’s Dive Team then responded to the scene to search for the other occupants. Later in the morning, divers pulled another man from the water, who was pronounced dead.
As of late Tuesday morning, first responders had also towed a white SUV from the lake but were continuing to search for the third person who they believe was in the car. The investigation was focused on the edge of Deer Creek Lakeside Way, which culminates in a dead end shortly before the lake.
“Recovery efforts are active and underway to see if there was indeed a third person inside the water,” Codd told reporters at the scene about 10:30 a.m. Tuesday.
Asked whether deputies were actively pursuing the car when it drove into the lake, Codd said, “The investigation is active and ongoing. What we know right now is that deputies were responding to the report of vehicle burglaries in this area shortly before 4 o’clock. And at some point after deputies arrived, the driver of the suspect vehicle fled and they crashed into the water.”
He did not have the names of any of the three people or details about what charges the arrested man is facing.
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