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Suspect gets away as patrol cars collideBy ALICIA CALDWELL and MIKE BRASSFIELD
© St. Petersburg Times, ST. PETERSBURG -- A murder suspect led police on a winding car chase through the city Friday before he escaped by driving the wrong way up an interstate off-ramp as two police cars behind him crashed into each other. The suspect, 26-year-old Charles James Hicks, remained at large late Friday. He is suspected of shooting a New Port Richey man in what police said was a domestic dispute involving a woman. The episode started with a car crash just before 1 a.m. Friday. Edward J. Caldwell, 38, was behind the wheel of a Nissan Sentra that had smacked into a utility pole at 34th Street and 18th Avenue S. A witness reported seeing a woman run near the car, though it was not known whether she had been a passenger. Caldwell had been shot in his car six blocks away, near 40th Street and 18th Avenue S. Wounded, he drove until he hit the pole, said police Sgt. Mike Puetz. Caldwell died from the gunshot, not the accident. Police detectives found out information that led them to pursue Hicks in the killing. About 11:30 a.m. Friday, a homicide detective in an unmarked car went to an area that Hicks was known to frequent, around 49th Street and 18th Avenue S. The detective saw Hicks driving a 1995 black and green Geo Tracker and called in marked police cruisers. Hicks sped away. Two police cars chased Hicks, who ended up on 22nd Avenue N near its junction with Interstate 275. Hicks made a quick U-turn and bolted north up the interstate's southbound exit ramp. Two St. Petersburg police cars, one going east and the other west on 22nd Avenue N, collided as officers tried to see where Hicks was going. Neither officer, Don Sigley and Marc Falzano, was injured. -- Times staff writer Cary Davis and researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.
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From the Times South Pinellas desks |
