Posted on 10/08/2022 9:24:06 AM PDT by TigerClaws
Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri released video filmed by a sheriff’s department helicopter early on Sunday morning that showed three teenagers stealing a Maserati, fleeing police, and then flipping the sports car at 123 mph (video below).
Sheriff Gualtieri said the incident began as sheriff’s deputies were responding to another burglary call in a residential neighborhood on Oct. 3, WFLA reported.
As the sheriff’s helicopter flew overhead, the pilot spotted three teenagers behaving suspiciously on the sidewalk below and pointed them out to the dispatcher over the radio.
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The video showed that as the pilot asked for deputies to investigate what the teens were up to, the suspects got into a Maserati parked by the sidewalk.
The sheriff said one of the boys covered his hand with his shirt as he opened the car door so he wouldn’t get his fingerprints on the soon-to-be-stolen vehicle, WFLA reported.
A moment later, the stolen Maserati pulled onto the sidewalk, drove across the grass, and then pulled onto the roadway with its headlights off and drove east on 62nd Avenue North, the video showed.
Sheriff Gualtieri said the aerial unit followed the stolen Maserati until patrol vehicles caught up with it, WFLA reported.
The sheriff said that when the 15-year-old driver saw police cruisers approaching him, he slammed on the gas and accelerated to 123 mph.
“As [the driver] punches it, the deputies immediately turn off their overheads, the sergeant got on the radio and told them to disengage, which they did immediately,” he explained.
The video from the helicopter showed that both police vehicles gave up the chase, dropped back, and were out of the camera’s view when the teen driver lost control of the Maserati a few seconds later.
“At five seconds before the crash, that Maserati was going 123 mph,” Sheriff Gualtieri told reporters.
The video showed the Maserati left the roadway and flipped multiple times before eventually coming to rest upside down.
The front seat passenger died at the scene of the wreck, WFLA reported.
He was later identified as 15-year-old Mario Bonilla.
A 16-year-old passenger in the back seat suffered life-threatening injuries but was expected to survive, WFLA reported.
Sheriff Gualtieri said the 15-year-old driver – later identified as 15-year-old Keondrick Lang – suffered critical but non-life-threatening injuries in the crash that killed his passenger.
Police said Lang is facing murder charges for Bonilla’s death.
The sheriff said that when deputies pulled the driver from the wrecked Maserati, they found a .25 caliber semiautomatic handgun on the front seat of the car, WFLA reported.
The gun did not belong to the owner of the stolen sports car, according to the sheriff.
Amazed at the professionalism of the police - just calm clear unemotional reporting. Not a single swear word. Clearly no ex-military here.
“It wasn’t Keondrick’s. The gun is framing him. He’s innocent, the police planted it.” - an anti-police liberal statement! :-)
Hey. Using the “F-word” as a noun, verb, adjective, adverb, expletive, and every other part of speech was the first thing I learned in the Army.
Must have still been in 4th.
My question is how was there a gun on the seat if the vehicle was flipped and landed upside down. Velcro???
Tampa Bay area of Florida - most likely St.Pete or Pinellas Park.
Keondrick Didn’t need to look anyway, but with a made up name like that, I KNOW I don’t need to look for a picture.
Bet the kid doesn’t even lose his license...
Was Keondrick a good boy, too?
Yep. There have been studies were ‘black names’ are consistently screened out for job interviews just bc of the name.
I must have not seen the name or thought they’d withhold it as they were all under 18. Kid that drove will be back on the street in a couple years.
Key fobs can be pretty weird. Leaving a jacket in the car (tired, tipsy, distracted) with a fob in the pocket won’t allow the doors to lock, even if they are manually locked. And the fob will be close enough so the start button will work.
I would hope a bait car would be rigged to stall out, brakes on, doors locked after moving 3 feet.
With sleeping gas flooding the inside.
I can’t drive 55.
Driver is 15. Don’t think anyone that age can get an actual full driver’s license.
Can get a learner’s permit at 15. Requires parental supervision.
Florida laws.
I had a full DL at age 15 back in the day.
Lots of provisional permits. Farm to market and farm to school at age 14, for example. That doesn’t mean Tampa Bay metro area at 4:00am unsupervised.
My Maserati does 123
I killed my friend now I ain’t free
Not in the post. I didn’t read the link. Funny, a friend of mine told me last night his son, a police officer in KY, had a run in with a guy who car jacked a Mazzarati.
“Not in the post. I didn’t read the link.”
OP’s error. Not poor journalism.
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