Shaq Scores Assist With Miami Police

NBA Star Follows Driver Who Allegedly Crashed Into His Car And Fled Scene

(CBS/AP)  Shaquille O'Neal put his police skills to use early Sunday.

O'Neal, the Miami Heat's All-Star center and a reserve officer with the Miami Beach Police Department, followed a driver who allegedly crashed into his Cadillac Escalade and tried to flee the scene, the team said.

O'Neal and bodyguard Jerome Crawford followed the driver for about five minutes. When the driver, identified by The Miami Herald as 18-year-old Emmanuel Cibrian of Tampa, stopped near a gas station, O'Neal approached the car and summoned a nearby police officer.

Police did not release an incident report Sunday night. Miami-Dade Corrections officials said they had no record of anyone by Cibrian's name being booked on a criminal charge, and it was unclear if he was ticketed for any moving violations.

"He opened the door, I don’t think he saw us and I hit him, I hit the door," Cibrian said of O'Neal, CBS station WFOR-TV in Miami reported.

Cibrian, along with two passengers, told police they were driving home from a nightclub when the accident with O'Neal occurred. The men said they did not stop because O'Neal immediately began following them and they were scared — so scared that even when another car struck them as they fled the crash, they still did not stop because they wanted to elude O'Neal, WFOR reported.

The incident happened around 4 a.m., shortly after the Heat got home from a Saturday game in Chicago. O'Neal was helping Crawford, a team security official, unload luggage outside Crawford's home in Miami's Coconut Grove neighborhood when the accident occurred.

O'Neal, through the team, said Sunday night that he followed proper police protocol during the chase, including pursuing at a safe distance and speed. He contacted police officers along the way, he said.

O'Neal was sworn in as a reserve officer in 2005. He has long said he intends to pursue a career in law enforcement when he retires from basketball.

[wadecounty01]

good work...the kids that hit him are idiots, you should see the news clip. " they love the Heats, he wasn't very nice to us. I'm kind of a mad, because i was a big fan of Shaq"...most people are pissed when they are the victim of a hit and run.

[global_chick]

Shaq is so cool..finally an NBA star who is not a thug, and is a good and decent person. He is one of the few NBA stars I respect, along with Steve Nash and former player David Robinson.

[legendary240]

I agree global_chick. I don't even watch ANY team sports at all anymore because of the hip-hop, gang-bangin',ghetto thug mentality and portrayal you are forced to see and supposedly accept as normal. Since giving up NFL, NBA, MLB and even NHL I can say that I don't miss it at all! Looking at the whole industry from the outside I just don't get why I was a "jock-sniffer" in the first place. It was a total waste of my time. But HOORAH for Shaq, he's right up there with another NBA great who is total class - Karl Malone!