A man sought since February after a hit-and-run crash that injured two people outside a Hallandale Beach restaurant was arrested by police in Georgia after he summoned them by accidentally misdialing 911.
Vagiff Safarov, 61, of Hollywood, was given a $150,000 bond by Broward Judge John “Jay” Hurley Thursday after he was charged with three counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, an automobile.
“Senior citizens get into accidents all the time in South Florida,” said Steve Rossi, Safarov’s lawyer. “There’s nothing to show he knew these people, or had any reason to harm these people.”
Hallandale Beach Police say that during the Feb. 12, incident at Flanigan’s Seafood Bar & Grill at 4 N. Federal Highway, a 2001 yellow Suzuki Vitara SUV driven by Safarov struck Efrain Lopez and Joby Paul-Benson, both of Aventura.
Lopez’s skull was fractured and he had cranial hemorrhaging, while Paul-Benson’s right wrist was broken, police said.
Surveillance video shows the men walking in the parking lot, then one of the men stopping the SUV with his foot on its bumper, and then being struck by the SUV.
Lopez has since died, and theMiami-Dade Countymedical examiner is investigating a cause of death, Hallandale Beach Police Capt. Pedro Abut said.
On March 12, an emergency dispatcher in Georgia directed Gwinnett County Police to an address where a person had called 911, hung up and was unreachable.
The Gwinnett County police officer wrote in his report that he went to a Norcross, Georgia address where he saw Safarov entering the passenger side of a van.
Safarov was going to see police in Marietta, he told the officer, who searched a national database and discovered an outstanding warrant for Safarov, and placed him under arrest.
In first appearance court Thursday, Rossi asked for a reduced bond for Safarov, but Hurley declined the request, citing no permanent address for the arrestee, recent foreign travel and the level of violence during the incident.
, 954-356-4233 or Twitter @LindaTrischitta
