{"id":425785,"date":"2026-10-12T19:04:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T19:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/425785\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T19:04:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T19:04:08","slug":"police-search-for-driver-who-killed-scooter-rider-crashed-van-into-fort-pierce-salon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/425785\/","title":{"rendered":"Police search for driver who killed scooter rider, crashed van into Fort Pierce salon"},"content":{"rendered":"

FORT PIERCE, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 Fort Pierce police are searching for a driver who they say hit and killed a man riding a scooter before fleeing the scene, crashing into a salon and running away on foot Sunday night.<\/p>\n

The deadly crash happened shortly before 9 p.m. on October 11 along Okeechobee Road, just west of South 25th Street.<\/p>\n

According to Major Michael Santiago with the Fort Pierce Police Department<\/a>, a man riding a scooter was stopped at a red light behind a Toyota pickup truck when a white van traveling eastbound failed to stop and struck him from behind.<\/p>\n

“That in turn led to a domino effect where the motorcyclist was ejected from the scooter itself and was thrown into the vehicle in front of the scooter,” Santiago said.<\/p>\n

St. Lucie County Fire District<\/a> officials said crews were dispatched at 8:51 p.m. and arrived four minutes later. The scooter rider was pronounced dead at the scene. No other patients were transported.<\/p>\n

But investigators say the van driver did not remain at the scene.<\/p>\n

See also: No lawyer, no law degree: Port St. Lucie man takes on Flock cameras in federal court<\/a><\/p>\n

Instead, Santiago said the driver reversed, made a U-turn, briefly traveled westbound in the eastbound lanes of Okeechobee Road, crossed the median and lost control before crashing into Kings & Queens Unisex Salon.<\/p>\n

“After he crashed into the business, he fled on foot,” Santiago said.<\/p>\n

Police immediately established a perimeter and searched for the driver using K-9 units and assistance from the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office<\/a> aviation unit, but were unable to locate him.<\/p>\n

By Monday afternoon, the van had been removed, but significant damage remained. Broken concrete and debris were piled outside the entrance, which was boarded up and surrounded by caution tape.<\/p>\n

Salon owner Sheila Hampton said she received a phone call about the crash and arrived to find extensive damage to her business.<\/p>\n

“They just called me at the last minute and I just seen a hole in my wall. That’s it,” Hampton said.<\/p>\n

Hampton said she was unable to open the salon Monday and was concerned about when she would be allowed to resume business.<\/p>\n

“I’m still numb from it. And I’m just hoping tomorrow will be a better day,” she said.<\/p>\n

Despite the damage to her business, Hampton also expressed sympathy for the family of the man who died.<\/p>\n

“My condolences from King and Queen Salon. We give out our condolences to the family,” she said. “This shouldn’t have ever happened.”<\/p>\n

Police searching for driver<\/p>\n

Santiago said witnesses described the driver as a Hispanic man wearing a dark top and light-colored pants or shorts.<\/p>\n

Investigators believe he may have been injured in the crash, based on evidence recovered at the scene.<\/p>\n

Police have recovered the van and identified its registered owner, but have not confirmed who was driving.<\/p>\n

Santiago said the registered owner lives approximately one to one-and-a-half miles from the crash scene. He also said the owner stopped communicating with investigators after officers began asking who had access to the vehicle.<\/p>\n

Police have not ruled anyone out as they continue pursuing leads.<\/p>\n

Investigators are also searching for surveillance footage that could help identify the driver. As of Monday afternoon, Santiago said they had not obtained video showing the suspect himself.<\/p>\n

“We are desperately needing the public’s help in identifying who was behind the wheel of this box van,” Santiago said.<\/p>\n

He urged anyone who saw the white van in the area Sunday night, recognized someone who may have been driving it or captured video of the incident to come forward.<\/p>\n

The victim’s identity has not been released as police work through the family notification process.<\/p>\n

No arrest had been announced as of Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Fort Pierce Police Department.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT PIERCE, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 Fort Pierce police are searching for a driver who they say hit and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425786,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":["post-425785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}