Four people were killed and 11 injured early Saturday morning in Ybor City, Fla., near Tampa, when a speeding driver being pursued by police lost control of his car and drove into a crowd outside a bar. File Photo by Justin Lane/EPA-EFE
Nov. 8 (UPI) — A speeding driver pursued by police crashed into a bar in Tampa’s Ybor City, killing four adults and injuring 11 pedestrians early Saturday, police said.
The vehicle slammed into Bradley‘s on the Seventh, a bar in the nightlife and tourist area in Ybor City. The driver survived and was arrested.
“They were out in Ybor, having a good time, expecting to go home safely,” Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw said about the victims, who were all older than 20. “And a careless, reckless driver takes everybody’s lives in his hands and just ended this night in a situation that’s never going to be the same for these individuals.”
Around 12:40 a.m., a police helicopter unit began watching a vehicle driving recklessly on Interstate 275, the agency said in a news release.
“The driver continued to drive recklessly at a high rate of speed and exited the interstate at Doyle Carlton Drive,” police said.
Tampa police and Florida Highway Patrol troopers found the vehicle moving, and FHP “initiated a pursuit.”
Then, they tried to stop the driver with a “precision immobilization technique,” or PIT, when a law enforcement officer pushes another vehicle sideways abruptly to force that driver to lose control. The driver “continued to travel at a high rate of speed.”
While continuing to drive at a high speed, the driver lost control and crashed into a business, striking more than a dozen people outside, according to police.
Three people were declared deceased at the scene and a fourth died at a hospital, police said.
Nine other people were taken to local hospitals with one in critical condition and the others in stable condition. Two others declined treatment at the scene, police said.
“They smashed out the window, they got him out, they subdued him, they cuffed him up and took him away,” Howard Hopkins, who was inside a nearby pizza restaurant, told WTVT-TV. “But during that same time, you know, people were screaming — they had to put up the crime-scene tape.”
“It was a full patio. The tables went flying and chairs were flying, it was pretty bad,” Hopkins told Spectrum News.
The driver was identified as Silas Sampson, 22, of Dade City, and is facing charges of four counts of vehicular homicide and four counts of aggravated fleeing to elude with serious bodily injuries.
“What happened this morning was a senseless tragedy, our hearts are with the loved ones of the victims and all those who were impacted,” Bercaw said in the news release. “Reckless driving put innocent lives in danger. The Tampa Police Department and the Florida Highway Patrol are committed to seeking justice for the victims and their families.”
“Bradley’s holds a special place in our LGBTQIA community and the heart of the Ybor Neighborhood,” Tampa Pride posted on Facebook.
Ybor City is northwest of downtown Tampa in a U.S. National Historic Landmark District known as “Florida’s Latin Quarter.” It was founded as a cigar manufacturing town in 1885 by Vicente Martinez Ybor.
The city became a mix of Cuban, Spanish, and Italian immigrants over time, earning Tampa the nickname “Cigar City.”
Florida’s oldest restaurant, the Columbia Restaurant, opened there in 1905. The restaurant contains the original bar from the Saloon Columbia that opened in 1903, where the Florida Brewery sold beer before adding a food menu.
During the day it has unique boutiques, art galleries and the weekly Ybor City Saturday Market.