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MIRAMAR, Fla. (WSVN) - Video shows a driver aggressively cut off a police cruiser along a South Florida highway, and now police say it appears the dangerous exchange was the result of a domestic dispute.
Austin Conley couldn't believe his eyes Saturday afternoon as the driver of a sedan swerved across three lanes of traffic on busy Interstate 75 in order to cut off a Miramar police officer. His dash-cam captured video of the Nissan sedan burning rubber before it veered in front of the clearly marked cruiser and slammed on its brakes.
"It got in front of the police car, slammed on the brakes, forced the police car from the very right-hand lane. They were probably about 100 yards in front of me when this happened," Conley recalled. "I almost got hit by the police car."
The footage shows the officer apparently trying to change lanes, but the Nissan matches each move, blocking the cruiser.
Conley couldn't figure out why the officer didn't just turn on the siren and pull the driver over.
"Well, that was the weird thing about it," he continued. "It didn't look like there was any attempt by the person in the police car to even stop the driver."
Later in the dash cam footage, it appears that both vehicles are stopped along the shoulder, but no police lights are flashing. Seconds later, the cruiser speeds off.
Police now believe that the whole thing started as a domestic dispute between Miramar police officer Ashley Abreu -- who was in the cruiser, and the father of her children, Roberto Zaldivar -- who was in the Nissan.
"There was an incident that occurred at the residence of the police officer and later on translated onto the highway," an FHP officer told WSVN-TV in Miami. "There's a good thing that there's video -- dash-cams -- not only in police cruisers, but also on people that are driving in the highways because that is actually a tool for law enforcement to investigate."
According to WSVN, Zaldivar has been arrested and charged with aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer and criminal mischief.