Police reports

Naples man dies of injuries from Interstate 75 crash

DADE CITY -- A Naples man injured in a car accident early Monday morning has died from his injuries.

Pailak Yeranosjan, 19, was driving north on Interstate 75 about 1 a.m. Monday, according to Florida Highway Patrol reports. He was driving "at excessive speed" on a road slick with rain, the report said.

Yeranosjan lost control of the 2003 Ford Crown Victoria about 3 miles south of State Road 52, the report said. The car spun clockwise onto the shoulder and the car trunk hit a tree, the report said.

He was airlifted to St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa, where he later died, the patrol said.

Three girls injured when car rear-ends school bus

ZEPHYRHILLS -- Three girls went to the hospital Wednesday morning with minor injuries after a car rear-ended their school bus at Wire and Daughtery roads.

The bus of Woodland Elementary School students was stopped on Daughtery, facing east, when a brown Geo Prism hit it from behind about 9:45 a.m., Zephyrhills police Officer Roy Langley said.

"He said his foot slipped off the brake," Langley said. "You let your foot slip off the brake and hit a school bus -- you're not looking at what you're doing."

Three girls in the back of the bus, all about age 10, were taken to East Pasco Medical Center as a precaution, Zephyrhills Fire Rescue Chief Robert Hartwig said. Two complained of sore necks, while the third had a sore wrist, he said.

The rest of the students were loaded onto a different bus and taken to school.

The car's driver, Charles William Cowles IV of Lebanon, Tenn., was cited with careless driving.

Pasco authorities seek man in armed robbery

ZEPHYRHILLS -- Authorities are looking for a man who robbed another man at knifepoint early Wednesday morning.

Michael Luther Davis, 37, of Zephyrhills, was riding his bicycle on Jendral Avenue about 3:45 a.m. when a man called him over, a Pasco County Sheriff's Office report said.

At first the man asked Davis to light his cigarette; then he asked Davis if he could make change for a dollar, the report said. When Davis reached into his pocket and took out some money, the man pulled out a small knife, the report said.

The man snatched $10 from Davis' hand and ran north on Sixth Street, the report said.

Anyone with information may call the Pasco County Sheriff's Office toll-free at 1-800-854-2862.

Pasco deputies search for bank robber

NEW PORT RICHEY -- Pasco County sheriff's deputies are searching for a man who robbed a SunTrust Bank with a silver handgun Wednesday afternoon.

Witnesses told detectives the man walked into the SunTrust Bank branch at 4041 Rowan Road about 3 p.m. Wednesday. He pulled out a gun, demanded cash and fled.

The robber was later seen getting into the passenger side of an older model Toyota Corolla hatchback, which drove north on Rowan Road.

The man was described as white, in his late 20s to early 30s, with a shaved head and a receding hairline, 5 feet 8-10 inches tall, 170-185 pounds with blue eyes.

None of the five employees or three customers were injured during the robbery.

Man hit in head with pool cue inside bar

HOLIDAY -- A Tarpon Springs man celebrating St. Patrick's Day was hit on the head with a pool cue by a man who accused him of messing with his girlfriend, a Pasco County sheriff's report said.

Louis Hendrix, 35, said he went to Brennan's Pub at 1144 Alt. U.S. 19 and walked up to the bar. He told deputies that the next thing he knew, a man he didn't know was saying something about "messing with" the woman standing next to him, and then he was hit with the pool cue.

The man, described as in his late 20s with a mustache and a slender build, then left the bar with the woman.

Hendrix declined medical attention at the bar but had a cut on his head.

Man cleaning house finds human skull

NEW PORT RICHEY -- Pasco County sheriff's investigators are checking grave desecration reports around the area after a man cleaning a house found a human skull Tuesday afternoon.

Sheriff's spokesman Jon Powers said the Pasco-Pinellas Medical Examiner's Office determined that the skull was from a male American Indian and was "very old." There have been no recent grave desecrations in Pasco, he said, so investigators are checking surrounding counties.

The skull was found by Clinton Newman, who was hired to clean the house at 5916 13th Ave. in New Port Richey. Newman said he found a small, makeshift shrine in the back yard under a tarp. On a small mat were beads, a stone icon and a fake glossy skull.

And in the middle: a human skull.

The shrine appears to be Santerian, a Caribbean religion, Powers said.

Investigators sent the skull to a lab in Gainesville for analysis.

Powers said dogs trained to detect cadavers found nothing at the house. Investigators are looking for the former tenants, who were evicted, Powers said.

Attacker cuts man's arm in parking lot fracas

HOLIDAY -- A New Port Richey man was cut on the arm after a confrontation in an apartment complex parking lot Tuesday morning, Pasco County sheriff's deputies said.

Alan Zitzman, 27, told deputies that he and some friends were drinking at Brennan's Pub on Alt. U.S. 19 and went to the Weston Oaks Apartments after the bar closed. While in the parking lot, Zitzman said a friend he only knew as "Y" yelled at a car as it drove by.

Later, the car came back, and a man got out with a knife. Zitzman said he and the man struggled, and Zitzman was cut on the arm.

Several men then began to fight with the man with the knife, and the man left. Zitzman was taken to North Bay Hospital, where doctors stitched the wound.

Deputies later found Wang Bin, 27, who lived in the complex, and Zitzman identified him as the man with the knife. Bin denied attacking Zitzman before deputies arrested him.

Bin was being held Wednesday afternoon in the Pasco County jail in lieu of $5,000 bail.

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