A guy in Florida may have to leave the country because he ran into the water to help a 9-year-old girl who had been bitten by a shark. Days after the attack, he was arrested and charged with driving without a license.
Luis Alvarez, 31, was pulled over around 1:30 a.m. on June 14 because police say he was driving without his headlights on. He lives in Lehigh Acres, which is in Lee County, Florida, about 140 miles northwest of Miami.
A report from the Collier County Sheriff’s Office says he was driving a gray SUV with a Rhode Island license plate.
The Fort Myers News-Press reported that court records show that he is being held in jail by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. On July 9, he is set to appear in court.
Why did Alvarez get arrested?
Police say Alvarez was pulled over on the day of his arrest, around 1:30 a.m. local time, because he was driving a car without light bulbs on.
When he was asked for his license, Alvarez pulled up a picture of his EA Card on his phone. The arrest record says that he told the officer that he had been in the country for two and a half years but had never had a driver’s license.
Alvarez was pulled over for driving without a license and given a warning for not having his headlights on.
It was written in the arrest record that Alvarez is from Boaco, Nicaragua. The court records show that ICE has him in jail.
Alvarez had been arrested before in a different Florida county.
Court records show that Alvarez has never been arrested in Collier County. Before December 2023, he was arrested four times in Lee County on the same charge of not having a current driver’s license. Lee County is on the Gulf Coast in the southwest corner of Florida.
Three different judges either fined him or didn’t give him a verdict. In Alvarez’s most recent case, the judge gave a D6 suspension on June 23. This meant that he could not apply for a license because he had not paid his fine.
Alvarez came in to help a girl who was being attacked by a shark.
On June 11, Alvarez was on the beach and ran into the water to help Leah Lendel, who was 9 years old.
The attack happened in the water just a few feet from the beach in Boca Grande, Florida. Lendel’s hand was almost cut off.
Surgery was able to reconnect Lendel’s hand after it was almost severed. Quick action at the scene and an airlift to Tampa General Hospital made this possible. She is getting better.
Raynel Lugo, Alvarez’s sister, said in an interview that she went into the water first to scare the shark. She also helped with the escape.
Ligo said in the interview, “He jumped in that area to bring her out while I was helping Leah.” “He went down deep and didn’t even care about the shark.” He went very far. It’s likely that he faced the shark.
Body camera video from the deputy from the Lee County Sheriff’s Office who came to the scene of the crime shows the three men standing next to the water while EMS treated Leah.
Through an interpreter, Alvarez told the first rescuers that it looked like a shark about eight feet long. Later, experts said it might have been a bull shark, which is one of the most dangerous sharks in Florida seas.
