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Briefs

Man, 20, dies after car hits tree

By Times Staff
Published January 3, 2006

TAMPA - A 20-year-old north Tampa man who died shortly before 4 a.m. Monday in a single-vehicle crash was not wearing a seat belt when his car crashed into a tree, according to sheriff's investigators.

Ryan Thomas, of 11723 N Edison Ave., near the Babe Zaharias Golf Course, was driving a 1992 Nissan south on Lake Magdalene Boulevard north of Fletcher Avenue. When the car for unknown reasons went off onto the right edge of the road, Thomas overcorrected, said sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter. The Nissan hit a tree, and the impact killed Thomas. Rescue workers pronounced him dead at the scene.

Thomas was the third person to die since New Year's Day in crashes in unincorporated Hillsborough.

Deputy injured when man rams cruiser

TAMPA - A Hillsborough sheriff's deputy was treated for shoulder injuries Monday night after a Tampa man under suspicion for domestic battery rammed into his cruiser, officials said.

A passer-by called 911 at 4:30 p.m. to alert authorities to what appeared to be a female being held against her will in a Nissan Altima driven by Brandon Mapes, 25, of 5322 Abinger Ct., sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said.

Deputies first encountered Mapes as he was drove south in a northbound lane of Anderson Road near Gunn Highway. Mapes soon smashed into a vehicle driven by Deputy Ken Turner as he pulled out of a Wal-Mart parking lot on W Waters Avenue.

Turner was transported to University Community Hospital with a possible dislocated shoulder. The hospital would not release Turner's condition late Monday.

Mapes was arrested and charged with attempted murder, false imprisonment, domestic violence and battery on a law enforcement officer, Carter said.

The 31-year-old woman in the vehicle, whom Carter described as Mapes' fiancee, was unharmed.

[Last modified January 3, 2006, 01:57:16]