{"id":251908,"date":"2026-04-30T02:01:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T02:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/251908\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T02:01:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T02:01:24","slug":"man-leaves-jail-after-being-accused-of-striking-boy-with-car-in-miami-gardens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/251908\/","title":{"rendered":"Man leaves jail after being accused of striking boy with car in Miami Gardens"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">MIAMI GARDENS, Fla.  \u2014 A man was released from jail Wednesday morning, a day after police said he struck an 11-year-old boy with his car in Miami Gardens while trying to bypass traffic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.local10.com\/espanol\/2026\/04\/29\/liberan-a-hombre-de-carcel-tras-ser-acusado-de-atropellar-a-nino-con-un-auto-en-miami-gardens\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.local10.com\/espanol\/2026\/04\/29\/liberan-a-hombre-de-carcel-tras-ser-acusado-de-atropellar-a-nino-con-un-auto-en-miami-gardens\/\">Leer en espa\u00f1ol<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">According to Miami Gardens police, the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.local10.com\/news\/local\/2026\/04\/28\/miami-gardens-pd-driver-arrested-after-driving-on-swale-to-bypass-traffic-striking-11-year-old\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.local10.com\/news\/local\/2026\/04\/28\/miami-gardens-pd-driver-arrested-after-driving-on-swale-to-bypass-traffic-striking-11-year-old\/\"> crash was reported at 7:53 a.m. Tuesday<\/a> in the 1200 block of Northwest 188th Street.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">An arrest report states that Jalen Darius Forbes, 23, of Miami Gardens, was driving south on Northwest 12th Street, trying to avoid traffic in a school zone when he drove onto the right of way, lost control of his Ford Fusion and struck the victim.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The victim was identified as 11-year-old Johnny Baptiste Jr.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/VPRMZ7G5KJFZ5JK75X7FIUGLUI.jpg\"  width=\"800\" height=\"450\"\/>Johnny Baptiste Jr. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Surveillance video in the area first shows the suspect driving at a high rate of speed, appearing to attempt to bypass traffic, before the sound of impact is heard.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Another angle shows Johnny walking with his cousin and the car jumping a sidewalk and mowing down the child.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019m looking at him all banged up and he\u2019s supposed to be home with me,\u201d Shakera Rolle, the boy\u2019s mother, said. \u201cWhen I first heard he was hit by a car, I instantly thought the worst.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Rose Emine, whose fence Forbes\u2019 allegedly crashed into with his car, told Local 10 News that the boy was unresponsive after being struck by the vehicle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cI said, \u2018Ahh\u2019 because I thought the boy has died,\u201d Emine said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cThey was just throwing water on his head. Big gash on his head,\u201d another witness, Orlando Lawrence, said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Police said Miami-Dade Fire Rescue personnel airlifted the victim to Jackson Memorial Hospital\u2019s Ryder Trauma Center with serious but stable head injuries.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Forbes, meanwhile, was arrested on charges of reckless driving and reckless driving causing serious bodily injury.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cI just wish he was a little more careful or paid more attention to the road where he was riding,\u201d Rolle said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">A <a href=\"https:\/\/gofund.me\/1cf2cfdb7\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/gofund.me\/1cf2cfdb7\">GoFundMe page<\/a> has been created to help Johnny\u2019s family with his medical bills. <\/p>\n<p>\ud83c\udfe0 News From Your Neighborhood<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-article-body__copyright\">Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. \u2014 A man was released from jail Wednesday morning, a day after police said he&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-251908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}