Cab Driver Recounts Scary Melee In Downtown Miami

MIAMI (CBS4) -- A new YouTube video captures what some believe was the beginning of a melee on Biscayne Boulevard in Downtown Miami on Saturday.

Cab driver Duvenet Thevenin was caught right in the middle.

"You know, I was afraid for my life inside the cab," said Thevenin.

People had been jumping all over his cab. They smashed his windshield and damged his roof.

The people had just been turned away from Club Mekka for the Autumn Music Festival.

Fire officials and pilice said they had to close down the event when too many people showed up. Those same people then went to the streets of busy Downtown Miami.

"Then you cannot move. I don't want to run and leave my cab. If I'm dying, I have to die with the cab," said Thevenin.

Captain Joseph Zahralban of the City of Miami Fire Department believes the decision to close down the event saved lives, but he says, the department is looking at what happened after the event was closed.

"Are there things that we can always address and improve upon in the future? Absolutely and we're doing that," said Captain Zahralban.

In photos taken from a nearby apartment building, you can see the massive amount of people on Biscayne Boulevard jumping on buses and even a cab. But as soon as one officer arrives, the crowd starts to disperse. Moments later, when more officers arrived, police were able to clear the road almost entirely.

"What's good about it is that no one was threatened. There was no aggression toward anybody," said William Moreno of City of Miami Police.

Police say nobody was arrested or seriously injured during the incident.

Meanwhile, Mike Slyder of Club Mekka says he intends to, once again, organize the event next year.

"I want to do it again but I want to do it right, and it won't be free and it won't be all ages," said Slyder.