Alleged Abduction Leads to Fiery Fatal Car Crash in Broward County

By Orlando Personal Injury Attorney on July 17, 2021

Detectives with the Plantation Police Department and other local law enforcement agencies are currently working to determine the cause of a heartbreaking auto accident which occurred early Thursday morning and claimed the lives of a 25-year-old man and a 3-year-old child along North University Drive in Broward County.

According to preliminary accident reports from officers with the Plantation Police Department, it was shortly before 3:30 a.m. on July 15, 2021, when 25-year-old Ryan Yates and his girlfriend 25-year-old Yasmin Cid were involved in a verbal domestic dispute at their place of residence. At some point during the argument, Yates grabbed Cid’s son, 3-year-old James Rocco Oizan Chapón, exited the house, and proceeded to get into a black 2014 Mercedes-Benz.

Although the mother frantically attempted to remove her toddler from the vehicle, her efforts proved to be futile and the luxury car raced away from the scene down University Drive toward 3rd Street. The Mercedes managed to only make it a couple of blocks away from where the initial incident took place before it violently crashed into a roadside tree and burst into flames. “I heard two booming sounds right after the crash and then a woman screaming for her baby. She was like, ‘My baby! My baby!’ I actually started crying when I heard that because I felt really helpless,” stated Elizabeth Velasco, a neighborhood witness to the fatal collision. Both occupants were pronounced dead at the scene.

A press release from the South Florida SunSentinel indicates that Ryan Yates had a lengthy rap sheet and history of negative run-ins with the law, including charges for battery, domestic battery by strangulation, grand theft auto and robbery from February of this year. This case remains under investigation by the Plantation Police Department.

A GoFundMe page has been created in honor of 3-year-old James Rocco Oizan Chapón to assist his mother with funeral expenses.

Since 1977, Florida personal injury lawyer James O. Cunningham has been compassionately representing severely injured victims who have been hurt or killed in car accidents, motorcycle accidents, hit-and-runs, drunk driver crashes, head-on collisions, or any other type of auto accident resulting in death. For additional information, please contact our office today at 877-FL-INJURY to schedule a free 30-minute case evaluation.

James O. Cunningham

Since 1977, personal injury lawyer James Cunningham has provided effective legal advocacy to people who are injured through the negligent actions of another person or entity throughout the Central Florida area. He fights to obtain recoveries for his clients’ physical and emotional pain and suffering and pursues his clients’ personal injury cases with a commitment to excellence and impeccable preparation.