{"id":19692,"date":"2026-05-22T00:56:31","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T00:56:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/19692\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T00:56:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T00:56:31","slug":"aerial-video-shows-high-speed-chase-involving-stolen-bmw-before-fiery-i-4-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/19692\/","title":{"rendered":"Aerial video shows high-speed chase involving stolen BMW before fiery I-4 crash"},"content":{"rendered":"

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. \u2013 Newly obtained aerial video of a high-speed chase involving a stolen BMW convertible captures the moments before the car slammed into a highway sign pole, tore in half and caught fire in August. <\/a><\/p>\n

Detectives connected the suspects inside to a theft ring responsible for stealing 33 luxury vehicles <\/a>and racking up nearly $3 million in combined vehicle theft and credit card fraud across Central Florida.<\/p>\n

The video, captured by the Seminole County Sheriff\u2019s Office helicopter unit ALERT, shows the stolen white BMW M4 convertible weaving through traffic on Interstate 4 at speeds over 100 miles per hour before the chase came to a violent end. <\/p>\n

Court documents state the Aug. 28, 2025, pursuit began with a theft in Lake Mary. The vehicle\u2019s owner used the car\u2019s GPS tracking device to locate the stolen BMW and alert law enforcement. Investigators tracked the vehicle to the area of 1229 Commerce Drive in Longwood, where deputies spotted two men attempting to put the convertible top up and removing items from the vehicle.<\/p>\n

Upon seeing law enforcement, the men began driving recklessly north on Markham Lake Road, according to the arrest affidavit. Deputies maintained a visual on the vehicle until ALERT arrived and took over aerial surveillance. They followed the stolen car all the way to Volusia County. <\/p>\n

The footage shows the car passing multiple vehicles, driving through the median and crossing lanes of traffic just before noon, with other civilian vehicles sharing the road.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s driving completely on the shoulder,\u201d a deputy called out over the radio.<\/p>\n

The BMW eventually exited I-4 in Debary, Volusia County, before the driver reversed course and merged back onto I-4 westbound. ALERT tracked every move from above, relaying real-time updates to deputies on the ground.<\/p>\n

The pursuit ended when the BMW crossed all lanes of traffic, lost control, and slammed into the concrete pole of the Exit 104 sign. The impact was so violent it tore the vehicle in half and caused it to catch fire, ejecting the passenger into a nearby wood line, according to the Seminole County arrest affidavit.<\/p>\n

The driver, D\u2019Mawuko Fugar, was found conscious in the driver\u2019s seat with a large laceration on his forehead. He was secured by detectives and transported to HCA Lake Monroe.<\/p>\n

The passenger, Edrick Bush, was located in the wood line approximately 10 minutes after the crash and transported to HCA Lake Monroe as a trauma alert. He was admitted to the intensive care unit.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the suspects was no pulse, no vitals on scene, but was later resuscitated at the hospital,\u201d said Deputy Sean Fitzgerald of the Orange County Sheriff\u2019s Office, in a video shared to social media.<\/p>\n

Both men survived \u2014 and the theft ring kept going, according to deputies.<\/p>\n

Court documents obtained by News 6 paint a detailed picture of how the ring operated. Investigators say Fugar used a gray 2024 Tesla Model 3 to drive suspects into neighborhoods, where they would case homes and target unlocked vehicles. The group regularly switched license plates on the Tesla to avoid tag readers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were casing the neighborhoods looking for vehicles that they wanted to steal and once they found that at a certain house, they were going into the garages of these victims\u2019 homes or just stealing the vehicle right out of the driveway,\u201d Fitzgerald said.<\/p>\n

The group targeted some of the most expensive vehicles on the road.<\/p>\n

\u201cHigh-end luxury cars \u2014 you\u2019re talking your G Wagons, BMW, Range Rover, Lamborghinis, Ferraris were even on the list,\u201d Fitzgerald said. \u201cThey didn\u2019t care about people being home; they didn\u2019t care about people being outside,\u201d Fitzgerald said. \u201cThere were sometimes where people were in their backyard and they would take their cars from their driveway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once a vehicle was stolen, the group moved quickly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re looking for credit cards or anything valuable in the car,\u201d Fitzgerald said. \u201cThey would drive straight to a Target anywhere where they can buy lump sums of gift cards and high-priced electronics and they were taking those and selling those.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other half of the team is ripping the GPS out,\u201d he added. \u201cOnce that was done, they would go to an apartment complex and park the vehicle there, let it cool off for a couple days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Court documents confirm stolen vehicles were regularly parked at one of the suspect\u2019s own apartment complexes in Orlando before being moved. From there, the operation extended beyond state lines.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the other defendants would then line up the tow truck to come pick up the vehicle and transport it out of state,\u201d Fitzgerald said.<\/p>\n

Multiple suspects face charges connected to the theft ring, according to court documents: D\u2019Mawuko Fugar, Edrick Bush, Damon Damascus Kelson Jr., Marvin Tyrone Brooks III, and Chadd Arthur Thomason.<\/p>\n

In total, investigators linked the group to 33 cases across the region. The stolen vehicles carried a manufacturer\u2019s suggested retail price of more than $2 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cCombined with the fraud that was used with the credit cards, it was almost $3 million,\u201d Fitzgerald said.<\/p>\n

In every case, victims had left their keys in their cars.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were a total of 33 cases that we know of in this area, and all these cases people left their keys in their car,\u201d Fitzgerald said.<\/p>\n

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Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. \u2013 Newly obtained aerial video of a high-speed chase involving a stolen BMW convertible captures…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20955],"tags":[6213,20855,8910,23,22799,22802,22207,22801,22800,22208],"class_list":["post-19692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bmw","tag-bmw","tag-chase","tag-crash","tag-crime","tag-orange-county","tag-racketeering","tag-seminole-county","tag-stolen-car","tag-theft","tag-volusia-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}