Digest

News on the go

By Times Staff Writer
Published August 27, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Special to the Times] Johnny Teel was the driver of the Jeep Wrangler that crashed into a bus pole, ejecting passenger Brian Reed, who later died. [Special to the Times] Brian Reed died in a accident Saturday when the Jeep Wrangler he was a passenger in tried to elude Tampa police. [Special to the Times] Arleis Perez was charged with DUI after police said he hit a mounted officer and his horse in Ybor City

TAMPA

Man charged in passenger's death in crash

The passenger in a Jeep, who died Saturday after being ejected as the driver crashed trying to avoid police, has been identified as Brian Reed, 40, of 304 W Woodlawn Ave. Johnny Teel, 37, of 5703 N Taliaferro St., the Jeep's driver, has been charged with grand theft auto, fleeing to elude, vehicular homicide and burglary. Another occupant in the vehicle who also survived the crash, Thomas Millstead, 36, of 2033 SE 30th St., was not charged with a crime. Tampa police had tried to stop the Jeep Wrangler when they noticed it moving erratically. Teel was taken to the Orient Road Jail, where he remained Sunday without bail. Police said they found drugs in the Jeep.

Car hits officer, horse in Ybor City

A mounted Tampa police officer and his horse suffered minor injuries early Sunday morning when a speeding driver hit them in Ybor City. Police arrested Arleis Perez, 20, of 421 Debra Drive in Brandon, on charges of driving under the influence with property damage or personal injury. He was taken to the Orient Road Jail. Plainclothes officers approached Perez at E Seventh Avenue and N 19th Street about 3:25 a.m. about loud music coming from his car. Perez rolled up his windows, locked his doors and drove west along Seventh "in a reckless manner," a police report said. Less than five minutes later, Officer Salvatore Mazza responded on his horse to E Eighth Avenue and N 19th Street. He and the horse were hit when Perez came speeding down Eighth Avenue, police said.

BRANDON

Police: Man took goods but forgot sis

Deputies say a 19-year-old Tampa man left his 7-year-old sister at a Wal-Mart on Saturday night, but took nearly $150 in stolen merchandise. Donovan Albert Nathaniel Hunter pushed a shopping cart stuffed with $148.31 worth of merchandise out of a Wal-Mart on Causeway Boulevard at 9:30 p.m. Saturday, according to an arrest affidavit. When a security guard approached him outside, he ran away. But his 7-year-old sister remained at the store. She gave deputies her brother's contact information, the report said.

[Last modified August 26, 2007, 23:48:05]