After a trooper tried to stop the vehicle, the driver fled, FHP says, noting the chase came to an end after a PIT maneuver was performed.
TAMPA, Fla. — An 18-year-old from Riverview was arrested in Tampa after the Florida Highway Patrol claimed the teen and others were engaging in reckless activities on the roadways. The teen is now facing charges for unlawful racing on a highway as well as fleeing and attempting to elude a police officer.
Roughly at 1:30 a.m. Sunday, an FHP trooper arrested Rodrigo Rivera Montano, 18, in Tampa. According to the criminal report affidavit reviewed by 10 Tampa Bay News, the trooper claims he saw multiple cars traveling east on Hillsborough Ave., just east of Hoover Boulevard.
“I observed multiple vehicles weaving in an[d] out of traffic, while leaving a vehicle take over, where multiple vehicles were doing burnouts and other reckless activities,” the FHP trooper stated in the report.
As the trooper tried to stop Rivera Montano’s car, he stated that the Dodge accelerated. First, the car fled west on Hillsborough Ave., and as the trooper approached him, Rivera Montano’s car seemed like it was stopping before accelerating again.
The chase came to an end when the trooper performed a precision immobilization technique, or PIT, which brought Rivera Montano’s car to a full stop.
As the trooper investigated the car, he stated in the report that he found a police radio scanner in a car cup holder, which he claimed was being used to scan law enforcement radio traffic.
Rivera Montano was placed under arrest after the incident and was taken to the Hillsborough County Jail.