10/2/2022
A 15-year is dead and two other teens were hurt after the early Sunday morning crash, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said. They slipped out of their homes and into the Saturday night darkness without their parents knowing.
At around 3:30 a.m. the next morning, the three teen boys came across a silver 2016 Maserati on a driveway at the intersection of 62nd Avenue and 28th Street N in St. Petersburg, according to law enforcement. One covered his hand with his shirt and reached for the door handle, finding the vehicle unlocked with the keys still inside.
The trio hopped inside, pulled out of the driveway with the lights off and headed east on 62nd Avenue North. Minutes later, the car flipped, killing one passenger at the scene and leaving the other fighting for his life in the hospital, law enforcement said.
The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office was responding to an unrelated burglary call at around 3:20 a.m. Sunday on 58th Avenue North when one of the agency’s helicopter pilots overhead spotted the three boys enter the Maserati.
Patrol deputies on the ground turned on their emergency lights and attempted to stop the car, but it accelerated and they did not pursue, Gualtieri said Sunday.
“We probably have one of the most restrictive pursuit policies of any agency in the state,” he said. “We don’t engage in pursuits because they’re dangerous.”
Once the deputies disengaged, he said, the car didn’t slow. Instead, the Maserati continued to barrel down 62nd Avenue North at 80 mph, more than twice the legal speed limit, the sheriff said.
The driver lost control in the area of 1024 62nd Avenue N, drove over a curb toward the commercial lot, hit a business sign and the vehicle flipped, the sheriff said.
The incident was documented and their parents were informed, but the teens were allowed to return home, Gualtieri said.
“These kids were on that bad path,” he said Sunday, adding that the event was a tragic example of the “crimes of opportunity” the agency responds to frequently.
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