A 37-year-old Gibsonton man led police on a high-speed chase that started in Holmes Beach, headed north to Anna Maria and then again through Holmes Beach before it ended in a crash in downtown Bradenton.
Holmes Beach police arrested Travis Riley May 23 after the city’s license plate reader system alerted an officer to a 1999 Jeep Cherokee as it entered the city westbound on Manatee Avenue West. The vehicle was flagged because it had been reported stolen.
However, the arrest took place on First Street East in Bradenton following a chase that took HBPD across the Anna Maria Island Bridge to the mainland.
Police clocked Riley’s speed at 80-90 mph at various points during the chase.
Juan Luna Castro, 22, of Riverview, Riley’s passenger, was arrested and transported to the Manatee County jail, where he was charged with trespass to a conveyance. He claimed he did not know the car was stolen and had tried to jump out when Riley hit a utility pole in Anna Maria.
The HBPD arrested Riley for grand theft auto and fleeing to elude police officers.
The chase began at 8:37 a.m. after HBPD Sgt. Tom Fraser was alerted to the stolen vehicle. He advised the other HBPD units and they started following the vehicle in the 5500 block of Marina Drive. Upon activating police lights and sirens, the driver of the Jeep, heading north to Anna Maria, sped up.
“It was like something out of a movie,” Joe Hutchinson, a Holmes Beach resident, said May 28 of the pursuit. Hutchinson saw the chase just after leaving Ginny’s and Jane E’s Cafe and Coastal Store, 9807 Gulf Drive, Anna Maria, and called the business owner to warn people to get off the sidewalk.
“I had just been over there and there were people everywhere,” Hutchinson said. “It is a miracle no one was hurt.”
According to police reports, when the vehicle crossed into Anna Maria at 90 mph, the HBPD notified deputies at the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office-Anna Maria substation and stopped the pursuit out of concern for public safety.
When the vehicle crossed back into Holmes Beach, Fraser and officer Christine LaBranche were northbound near the 7300 block of Marina Drive. They U-turned to follow Riley as he drove south, then turned east on Manatee Avenue to cross the bridge.
Jess Mineo and her wife Kim were stopped at the intersection of Manatee Avenue West and East Bay Drive headed east on Manatee Avenue when Riley and the police vehicles passed them at a red light.
“The whole car shook as they passed between us and the median on the right,” Jess Mineo said.
“The Jeep blew past us before we even heard the police sirens,” Kim Mineo added.
The chase came to a crashing halt in downtown Bradenton when Riley hit a curb on First Street East, then came to a rest after striking a post near the 100 block of Fifth Avenue East.
Both men exited the vehicle with their hands up and were arrested by the HBPD.
Riley told police his girlfriend let him borrow the car then “set him up” by reporting it stolen.
The vehicle owner contacted the HBPD May 23 and said she only knew Riley as an acquaintance. She said she was with him the day before, and claimed he had been using methamphetamine and had sexually assaulted her. She also said he is a “higher up” in the Aryan Nation organization in Hillsborough County.
She was advised to file a report with Hillsborough County authorities.
Riley is scheduled to appear at the Manatee County courthouse June 16.