Woman, 21, Charged in Fatal Dania Beach Hit-and-Run on Sheridan Street, BSO Says

A 21-year-old woman has been charged with leaving the scene of a crash involving death after a man was struck and killed on Sheridan Street in Dania Beach on Saturday morning, Oct. 17, the Broward Sheriff's Office said. Keila Maldonado is accused of hitting the man with a rented Hyundai near North Federal Highway, driving away and later watching from a nearby shopping plaza as first responders worked on him, according to her arrest report as described by NBC6. She is presumed innocent.

Maldonado also faces a charge of tampering with or fabricating evidence. At a first appearance hearing on Sunday, Oct. 18, a Broward judge set her bond at $51,000, NBC6 reported. The man who was killed had not been publicly identified as of Sunday.

What deputies found on Sheridan Street

Broward Sheriff's deputies and fire rescue crews were called to Sheridan Street near North Federal Highway on Saturday morning, according to BSO. They found a man lying in the roadway, and he was pronounced dead at the scene. BSO has not released a specific time for the crash.

Investigators said the man was crossing the westbound lanes of Sheridan Street when a Hyundai struck him, and the driver did not stop, NBC6 reported. The Broward Sheriff's Office provides police services in Dania Beach under contract with the city, which is why BSO, rather than a municipal police department, is handling the case.

Detectives with BSO's Traffic Homicide Unit made the arrest on Oct. 17, the same day as the crash, according to WSVN. The station reported that investigators traced the suspect by following vehicle parts left behind on the road at the scene.

How detectives say they found the car

According to the arrest report described by NBC6, detectives learned that the vehicle they were looking for was at a car dealership in North Miami Beach. They found it secured in a parking garage there, with damage consistent with a collision. The Hyundai was a rental car.

The arrest report says Maldonado works at the dealership. She asked a coworker for a repair estimate on the car, and the coworker noticed the damage did not look like the result of a crash with another vehicle, according to the report. When he asked her about it, she said she had been driving near Hollywood, had hit someone and had left, NBC6 reported.

A manager then asked Maldonado for the keys, the report states. She left the dealership but was called back and returned.

What the arrest report says she told detectives

Maldonado told detectives she had taken the car without the dealership's knowledge the day before the crash and had gone to the beach in Hollywood, according to the arrest report as described by NBC6. After leaving the beach, she said, she struck a person on a scooter on a road she could not identify.

The report says she then parked at a nearby shopping plaza and watched for about an hour as police and paramedics treated the victim. She told detectives she did not call law enforcement, according to NBC6.

Detectives gave Maldonado a choice, the report states: she could ride back to Broward County with them, or she could be taken into custody by the Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office on an arrest warrant and extradited. She chose to return with the detectives and was arrested.

There is one discrepancy in the public account. BSO and both television stations describe the man as a pedestrian crossing Sheridan Street, while Maldonado's account in the arrest report refers to a person on a scooter. BSO had not publicly reconciled the two descriptions as of Sunday.

The charges and what Florida law requires

Maldonado is charged with failing to stop and remain at the scene of a crash involving death, and with tampering with or fabricating physical evidence, according to NBC6 and WSVN. The arrest report as described by the stations does not specify what evidence she is accused of tampering with.

Leaving the scene of a fatal crash is among the most serious traffic crimes in Florida. Under Section 316.027 of the Florida Statutes, a driver who willfully fails to stop and remain at a crash that results in a death commits a first-degree felony and, if convicted, must be sentenced to a mandatory minimum of four years in prison. The same statute requires that the driver's license be revoked for at least three years. The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles says the offense carries up to 30 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

The four-year minimum dates to the Aaron Cohen Life Protection Act, which took effect July 1, 2014. The law is named for Aaron Cohen, a 31-year-old cyclist and father of two who was fatally struck in February 2012 on the Rickenbacker Causeway in Miami-Dade County by an impaired driver who fled. That driver received a sentence of about two years, shorter than a DUI manslaughter sentence would have been, according to FLHSMV, and the case pushed lawmakers to remove the incentive to flee. The bill passed the Legislature unanimously and was signed by Gov. Rick Scott.

Tampering with evidence is a separate crime under Section 918.13. It covers altering, destroying, concealing or removing an item to impair its value as evidence when a person knows an investigation is pending or about to begin, and it is generally a third-degree felony.

A statewide problem that falls hardest on pedestrians

Hit-and-run crashes are common in Florida, and pedestrians bear the deadliest share. According to FLHSMV, Florida recorded 104,273 hit-and-run crashes in 2023, which resulted in 271 deaths and 871 serious bodily injuries. Of those 271 people killed, 159 were pedestrians and 47 were bicyclists, about three-quarters of all hit-and-run deaths, the agency says.

The state runs an annual "Stay at the Scene" campaign each February. In announcing the 2025 campaign, FLHSMV Executive Director Dave Kerner said the consequences of leaving the scene "far outweigh those of staying." Florida law requires any driver involved in a crash on public or private property that causes damage, injury or death to stop immediately.

Near the crash site in Dania Beach, Pastor Edvard Legrand of a nearby church told NBC6, "It is dangerous." He added that he was sorry to hear that someone had died.

What's next

Maldonado's case now moves to the Broward State Attorney's Office, which will decide whether to file formal charges matching those brought by BSO. Bond was set at $51,000 at her first appearance.

BSO's Traffic Homicide Unit is still investigating, and the sheriff's office has not yet released the name or age of the man who was killed. Also unresolved in the public record is whether the victim was walking or riding a scooter when he was struck, and what evidence Maldonado is accused of tampering with.