MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – Armando Fogaça, a Brazilian-born personal trainer and fitness influencer with hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram, was arrested Monday after authorities said he hit a Miami Beach police motorman and fled onto the MacArthur Causeway, where he wrecked into a vehicle at speed.
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The 37-year-old South Beach resident ― seen in videos posted to the platform using his strength to crush watermelons and bend cooking pans ― is now facing the weight of the law.
According to an arrest report, the officer was at Fifth Street and Lenox Avenue just before 9 a.m. when Fogaça, on a silver Triumph motorcycle with his wife, made an illegal right turn on red.
Police said the officer stepped out in traffic to stop Fogaça and ordered him to pull over. The report states Fogaça initially stopped, but then “accelerated” and hit the motorman, knocking him to the ground, then fled onto the causeway.
They said the officer had to be treated for injuries at a local hospital.
It states that he used the bicycle lane to pass other vehicles, ran the red light at Palm Island, then crashed into a vehicle near the west bridge.
According to the report, Fogaça’s wife, who was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center after being thrown off the bike, told officers that “they were traveling between 80-100 mph before the crash into the vehicle by the Parrot Jungle.”
Police said Fogaça has no driver’s license, just a Brazilian passport.
Miami Beach police arrested Fogaça on charges of leaving the scene of a crash causing serious bodily injury, driving without a license causing serious injury, fleeing and eluding an officer and reckless driving causing serious bodily injury, all felonies.
As of late Tuesday morning, the influencer ― who has a prominent neck tattoo reading “NO EASY WAY OUT” ― was being held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.
While given a $22,500 bond on the aforementioned charges, jail records show he was ordered held without bond on an additional charge of aggravated battery on a police officer under a separate warrant case. It’s unclear whether that charge is related to Monday’s incident.
He also remained behind bars on an immigration hold, records show.