MIAMI – A 32-year-old woman has been arrested following a hit-and-run crash in Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood that left another woman dead Friday morning, authorities confirmed.
According to Miami police, the crash was reported just before 1:15 a.m. in the area of Southwest 22nd Avenue and Seventh Street.
Police said officers arrived at the scene and found that 41-year-old Katherine Kipnis had been struck by a vehicle.
The driver, identified as Ivana Gomez, of Miami, fled the area and Kipnis was pronounced dead at the scene by Miami Fire Rescue, authorities confirmed.
Witnesses described the heartbreaking moment they heard a loud crash and walked outside to find Kipnis lying in the street.
“I saw the body and the police had the area shut down,” said Irma Estrada, who lives nearby.
According to Gomez’s arrest report, she was behind the wheel of a blue 2019 BMW 330i and was speeding westbound on Southwest Seventh Street when an officer spotted her.
Police said the officer accelerated to catch up with the car, and then witnessed the hit-and-run crash.
Noon report:
According to the report, the officer activated the police lights and sirens on his vehicle, but Gomez failed to stop.
Police said she eventually stopped at a red light because two other vehicles were in front of her.
According to the report, the officer approached the driver’s side door of Gomez’s car and immediately smelled a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage emitting from Gomez’s breath.
Police said she also had bloodshot, watery eyes.
According to the report, Kipnis was struck with such force that a chunk of her hair was embedded into the windshield and some hair was found on the front passenger headrest.
The front of the vehicle also had sustained “extremely heavy damage,” the report stated.
Police said Gomez refused to submit to a field sobriety test and requested an attorney.
According to the report, at one point, she spontaneously said, “it was just a homeless person that I hit and it is just an accident.”
Kipnis was remembered by her father, Daniel Kipnis, who spoke to Local 10 News by phone shortly after learning of her death.
“My daughter was vivacious, lovable. Everyone really liked her. She was tough, but in a good way,” he said. “I just think back, I spoke to her last night at 6 o’clock when she told me, ‘I love you, Dad.’ That’s the last thing she said to me.”'
Gomez was arrested on charges of leaving the scene of a crash involving death and resisting an officer without violence. A driving under the influence charge is also pending the results of a toxicology report.
Gomez remained at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on Friday, where her bond was listed as “to be set.”