A woman accused in a hit-and-run crash that killed a South Florida native riding her bike on the Southeast 17th Street Causeway in Fort Lauderdale last week was arrested after she drove two miles away, left the car involved in the crash and got into an Uber, a probable cause affidavit said.
Don Janea Smith, 22, of Fort Lauderdale, was driving a black 2020 Nissan Versa east along the drawbridge shortly before 7 a.m. Thursday while Shelley Lewis, 68, rode her bicycle east in the bike lane at the same time, the affidavit said.
Video from the bridge tower showed the Nissan crash into Lewis as the car traveled in the bike lane, according to the affidavit. The driver swerved, slowed down, then drove away.
The Nissan was tracked driving from the area to the 300 block of North Birch Road, about two-and-a-half miles north, where Fort Lauderdale Police officers found it parked and empty shortly before 10 a.m., the affidavit said.
An officer secretly watching the car saw Smith arrive to the address about 10:30 a.m. in a black Chevrolet Suburban and take things out of the Nissan before getting into an Uber with the items she removed, according to the affidavit.
Officers then made a traffic stop and detained Smith just after 10:40 a.m., according to the affidavit. The statements Smith made to police after she was detained are redacted in the court record.
Smith was held in the Paul Rein Detention Facility as of Monday. She faces one count of leaving the scene of a crash involving death and one count of tampering with evidence, jail records show.
She has been ordered to surrender any passport to the clerk of court. Attorney information was not available late Monday.
Lewis lived near the causeway bridge and regularly rode her bike over it, always while wearing a helmet, her niece Veronica Haines told the South Florida Sun Sentinel last week. Lewis was a former Broward County Public Schools employee who during her career worked as the head of special education at Mirror Lake Elementary in Plantation and at Sawgrass Elementary School in Sunrise.
‘Heart of our family’: Bicyclist killed in hit-and-run on 17th Street Causeway in Fort Lauderdale