An April 2 car chase that started in Holmes Beach ended in a crash in Bradenton and the arrest of two unnamed juveniles.
The city’s license plate recognition system pinged a stolen vehicle around 8 p.m. traveling westbound past the Kingfish Boat Ramp on Manatee Avenue.
An officer located the vehicle at the intersection of Manatee and Sixth avenues.
After confirming the vehicle as stolen, the officer initiated a traffic stop, but the motorist accelerated and fled over the Anna Maria Island Bridge toward Bradenton, passing multiple vehicles in a no-passing zone and eventually losing control on a turn.
The vehicle crashed head-on into a palm tree in the 4100 block of Second Avenue Northwest, where the driver exited the vehicle and fled.
The officer provided a description of the driver over the radio and turned his attention to the vehicle’s three passengers, all juveniles.
Backup arrived and police handcuffed the passengers.
One passenger, a 14-year-old boy, was transported to HCA Florida Blake Hospital in Bradenton for injuries sustained in the crash.
Police found several arrest warrants out of Pinellas County for the injured juvenile, including warrants for possession of a controlled substance, grand theft motor vehicle, resisting arrest without violence and three for carrying a concealed firearm.
Police arrested the teen after he was cleared by hospital staff and transported him to the Manatee Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Bradenton.
The other passengers were 14- and 17-year-old girls who were identified as missing persons out of Manatee County.
The girls’ parents picked them up and one of the girls’ mothers provided information on the driver.
Police searched the vehicle and found a loaded flare gun and flares, shotgun shells and clothing with price tags attached.
According to an April 5 news release from the Holmes Beach Police Department, the driver was later identified, located and arrested.
The release states, “It was learned by one of the parents that the same four juveniles were arrested in Pinellas County for driving a stolen vehicle and shooting the flare gun.”
The arrested juveniles’ names and court proceedings will remain confidential due to their age unless they are charged by the state as adults.
