Innocent motorist killed after trying to avoid cop chase

Bonnie Bouffard died at 74, the innocent victim of a high-speed police chase on the Florida Turnpike.

Courtesy photo

A woman killed in a recent police chase in Broward County had pulled over to the side of the Florida Turnpike to get out of the way, records show. She was just four miles from her exit, close to home. Within minutes, she’d be dead.

Her car was struck by the fleeing suspect, a woman accused of stealing a pickup truck, who spun out of control after being intentionally struck by a state trooper. Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies, Coconut Creek police and Florida Highway Patrol troopers were pursuing the driver amid rush-hour traffic on the Turnpike.

In police reports released to the Miami Herald, new details are emerging about the Feb. 26 chase that resulted in the death of Bonnie J. Bouffard, a 74-year-old Davie woman who loved the slots and her pet cat. The pursuit also injured a Florida Highway Patrol trooper, a Broward Sheriff’s deputy and a Coconut Creek police sergeant. Two other innocent motorists were struck that day, records say, and the Turnpike was shut down for hours.

The stolen truck the woman was driving had an active tracking device, records say, and overhead, a police helicopter had an eye on her — indicating that even without a chase, the stolen work truck likely would have been located.

The records also raise questions about how the woman behind the wheel of the stolen car made it onto the busy highway. Prior to the chase, she’d been pulled over and boxed in by police on the Turnpike on-ramp. Despite being surrounded by five city cops and one sheriff’s deputy, and their patrol cars, she was able to speed off onto the Turnpike, where she was “weaving in and out of traffic, and driving in the shoulder” before killing Bouffard, one police report says.

Bouffard was the second person in just a 16-day span in Broward to die in police chases.

On Feb. 10, Ronald Wilson, 73, was killed when a Broward deputy crashed into his car in an intersection.

Controversial PIT maneuver

In both incidents, innocent motorists died. Both chases were originally sparked by the theft of a vehicle, then escalated when the suspects ran into law-enforcement vehicles, triggering the criteria for a chase and use of the controversial PIT maneuver, or Precision Immobilization Technique, where an officer attempts to push the rear corner of a fleeing vehicle so that it will spin out of control and the chase will end.

During the chase that resulted in Bouffard’s death, a BSO deputy had attempted a PIT maneuver, but decided not to do it due to concerns about traffic during the afternoon rush hour.

PIT maneuvers in U.S. law enforcement are controversial, and some agencies do not allow them, because of the risk of injury or death.

Bouffard was wearing black scrubs and driving southbound about a mile south of Sunrise Boulevard, after another workday at Total Orthopaedic Care in Lauderdale Lakes, where she was beloved. She “noted lights and sirens in her rearview mirror,” a Broward County Medical Examiner’s report says, and, in accordance with Florida law, she pulled over to let them pass.

But they didn’t.

FHP trooper Bernard Major, 33, rammed the suspect’s stolen 2022 Ford F-250 pickup truck with a PIT maneuver. The truck struck a concrete wall, then smashed into Bouffard’s 2024 Nissan Altima, records in the case say. She was declared dead at the scene 19 minutes later, after failed resuscitation attempts, a Broward County Medical Examiner’s report says.

The woman arrested and charged with stealing the truck, leading police on the chase, causing injury to the trooper and police officer, and killing Bouffard has been identified as Laiken Lynn Randolph, 34, records released to the Miami Herald say. She was booked under a false name she gave, Anna Giza.

Bonnie Bouffard’s neighbors worried after police came by her Davie condo after the Feb. 26 accident, looking for next of kin. ‘We miss Bonnie,’ her longtime neighbor, Susy Abbat, said. Brittany Wallman Miami Herald Heart for animals

Bouffard’s co-workers and family celebrated her Sunday as a punctual, reliable colleague and friend who liked to smoke, drink, gamble and have a good time. She survived breast cancer. She was lucky at slot machines. She had a heart for animals. At her condo in Davie, a sticker on the window requests, “In case of fire, please save my cat.”

At her funeral, the dozens of attendees were given tiny bottles of Bouffard’s favorite shot, peanut butter whiskey.

Mike Brees, a friend of Bouffard’s for 45 years, wondered aloud at her funeral, what if she’d just kept driving? She was doing the right thing — or thought she was.

“It could have been you. It could have been me,” Brees said. “It could have been a lot of people.”

‘Have a shot on me,’ a note on a bottle of peanut butter whiskey says. The shots were given out to attendees at the funeral of Bonnie Bouffard. Brittany Wallman bwallman@miamiherald.com

The Florida Highway Patrol is investigating the crash that killed Bouffard and has released little information about it, other than identifying the trooper.

Documents reveal details of police pursuit

But in documents released by BSO and Coconut Creek police, a more clear picture emerges of the crash and what led up to it.

The entire saga lasted just a little over an hour. Three innocent motorists were struck by Randolph, though only the accident with Bouffard is detailed in the records provided to the Herald.

The timeline started with a call to Fort Lauderdale police at 3:52 p.m. on Feb. 26 that someone had stolen a work truck equipped with a tracking device. It pinged in northwest Broward.

Coral Springs police put out a “Be On the Lookout” alert. A Broward sheriff’s deputy reported the truck’s location over the police radio every two minutes.

The truck reportedly hit a car on Sample Road and kept going. Then, at 4:28 p.m., it was spotted by Coconut Creek police. At 4:35 p.m., a BSO helicopter was above and had eyes on the truck.

When Randolph tried to enter the Turnpike, she was blocked by police. A Coconut Creek officer positioned his car in front of her, and a sheriff’s deputy pulled in behind her. Several other Coconut Creek officers also were on scene.

They tried breaking her car window. One officer tried 12 times, until the department-issued window-breaking tool broke. Randolph rolled forward and struck an officer’s car, then put the truck in reverse, striking the car of a BSO K9 deputy’s car. Then, with two officers on foot in her way, she accelerated and slammed into Coconut Creek Sgt. Brian Mullin’s patrol car again.

“She struck my patrol vehicle, for the second time, with such force that she snapped my front axle, rendering my patrol vehicle inoperable,” he wrote in a police report. She drove off, he wrote, “narrowly missing” two officers, driving around a tree and a BSO deputy’s vehicle, and racing to the Turnpike.

Mullin suffered a back injury. The K9 deputy, Raymond Rogers, was “jostled” and went to the hospital as well.

Randolph raced down the Turnpike, hitting another unidentified motorist at about 4:40 p.m., the reports say.

“As the driver of the stolen vehicle intentionally struck two occupied police vehicles and accelerated towards uniformed officers on foot that were in the path of travel, the driver committed multiple forcible felonies, BSO deputies initiated a vehicle pursuit,” the arrest affidavit says.

A woman who gave the name Anna Giza was arrested after a chase and fatal crash on Florida’s Turnpike in Plantation on Feb. 26. She has since been identified by police as Laiken Lynn Randolph, 34. Broward Sheriff’s Office

Broward Sheriff’s Deputy Gerald Wengert “attempted” a PIT, then changed his mind because of traffic, records say. About 30 seconds later, FHP Trooper Major executed the PIT, sending Randolph’s truck careening into a concrete wall and then into Bouffard’s car. She was pronounced dead at 4:59 p.m.

Major, who suffered knee and shoulder injuries and hasn’t been medically cleared to return to work, could not be reached for comment.

His union attorney, Michael Braverman, said it would be misguided to focus on anything but the actions of the suspect who endangered police and the public, and had to be stopped.

“This person had exhibited such incredible gross disregard for everyone’s safety,” said Braverman, general counsel for the Broward Police Benevolent Association. “It was her conduct that led to those deaths, not the deputy, not the trooper.”

Braverman said he happened to be driving north on the Turnpike that day, and witnessed the police chase himself. He said he saw 10 or 12 police cars in the southbound lanes. He didn’t witness the crash, but he viewed body camera footage, he said.

“It’s a tragedy. It’s horrible. Nobody wants to be in this position, and just so you know, [Trooper] Major is obviously upset. It’s not just a job for these folks. They don’t want anyone in the collateral field hurt.”

Bill Smith, president of the FHP chapter of the Florida PBA, said the circumstances of the case warranted this police response.

“When someone tries to run into you with probably a 6- or 7,000-pound vehicle, obviously they can kill you, whether you’re inside a car or not. That’s reasonable,” Smith said. He added: “It’s an unfortunate thing. That’s why they’re called accidents. It wasn’t done on purpose.”

Randolph’s bond was set at $3.5 million. She’s being held at the Broward County jail in Pompano Beach. The Broward Public Defender’s Office declined to represent her after learning that two employees in the office had personal connections to Bouffard, records show.

Her attorney, Maria Della Guardia with the state Office of Criminal Conflict and Civil Regional Counsel, said she could not comment at this time.

Miami Herald staff reporters David Goodhue, Sofia Saric and Milena Malaver contributed to this report.

Innocent motorist killed after trying to avoid cop chase

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