- November 7, 2024
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Deputies arrested a 16-year-old boy after the teen almost crashed a car into two unmarked Sheriff’s Office cars, then led deputies on a chase in Palm Coast’s P-, R- and W- Sections, striking another car and veering around a stopped school bus.
A Sheriff’s Office commander, Chris Sepe, was in an unmarked Sheriff’s Office car parked in front of 27 Pine Hurst Lane at about 2:25 p.m. Sept. 27 when a black Toyota Camry with a Texas plate almost struck him head-on, then careened through the stop sign at Pine Haven Drive and Pine Hurst Lane.
The car sped up to about 50 miles per hour on Pine Haven Drive, where children had just been let off a school bus.
“Several juveniles were walking on Pine Haven Dr. where the vehicle was rapidly accelerating,” a deputy wrote in an arrest report.
Sepe turned on his lights and siren and chased the speeding car, which turned onto Pine Grove Drive, then Pine Haven Drive, then made a U-turn and returned to Pine Grove Drive before turning onto Belle Terre Parkway.
Another Sheriff’s Office corporal in an unmarked car joined the chase, getting behind the speeding car on southbound Belle Terre Parkway and turning on lights and siren to stop the Toyota at the intersection with Royal Palms Parkway.
But the car didn’t stop. It crashed into another car — while turning right onto Royal Palms Parkway from the inside lane of southbound Belle Terre Parkway — and kept going.
The crash injured the other driver, a woman. She was hospitalized at Florida Hospital Flagler.
The Sheriff’s Office corporal tried to stop the Toyota again, but its driver ignored the lights and siren and headed west on Royal Palms Parkway. Two more Sheriff’s Office cars joined the chase. The county’s emergency helicopter, Fire Flight, was deployed to follow the car.
The speeding Toyota turned on Rickenbacker Drive, “continuing to endanger pedestrians and other vehicles,” and swerved around a stopped school bus at Round Tree Drive and Ravenwood Drive as children were filing out of the bus, its yellow lights flashing. Deputies backed off, fearing the danger to pedestrians. Fire Flight video-recorded the incident.
The car turned onto Ravenwood Drive, and a Sheriff’s Office corporal later saw it on Wheeling Lane.
“Several unmarked agency vehicles flooded the area and continued to observe the black sedan driver recklessly throughout the W-Section of Palm Coast, but did not making any attempt to stop the vehicle or follow its reckless driving pattern.”
Instead, Fire Flight followed the car while deputies on the ground kept their distance. The car drove in circles on Wellwood Lane and then stopped at the street’s intersection with Wellhaven Lane.
Deputies then approached the car and found it empty. They called in a K-9 team, and found a 16-year-old boy, a Bunnell resident, hiding in the wood line just south of the car. Sepe identified the teen as the driver he’d seen at the wheel of the Toyota.
The teen, who did not have a valid driver’s license, was arrested and charged with felony aggravated feeling and attempting to elude law enforcement.
