A car plowed into a crowd outside a popular LGBTQ bar in Tampa early Saturday, killing at least four people and injuring 13 others, officials said.
The crash took place in Tampa’s historic Ybor City district shortly before 1 a.m., Chief Lee Bercaw of the Tampa Police Department said during an early-morning press conference.
Bercaw blamed the incident on a “careless, reckless driver” who was spotted by TPD Air Service speeding on Interstate 275, after earlier being seen street racing in a nearby neighborhood.
Around 12:45 a.m., after Tampa police located the vehicle near Palm and Nebraska avenues, the Florida Highway Patrol initiated a pursuit.
“At that point, two FHP units attempted a traffic stop, but the vehicle fled,” Bercaw said. Officers then unsuccessfully tried a PIT maneuver, a controversial police tactic in which a pursuing car nudges a fleeing vehicle to stop it.
The driver of the vehicle, later identified as 22-year-old Silas Sampson, continued to speed down 7th Avenue just east of 15th Street, then “lost control and crashed into a business, striking more than a dozen people who were outside,” police said in a press release.
The business, Bradley’s on 7th, is “a place that has long been a gathering spot in Tampa’s Ybor City for the LGBTQ community,” according to St. Pete Pride.
Three victims died at the scene, and a fourth died at a hospital, police said, without releasing any names. Two people were hospitalized in critical condition Saturday, and another seven were being treated but listed as stable.
Two others victims were admitted to the hospital but released by the afternoon, while another two suffered minor injuries and declined treatment at the scene. All 17 victims are adults.
Sampson was taken into custody after the crash, police said. It wasn’t immediately clear if he was injured.
He was subsequently charged with four counts of vehicular homicide and four counts of aggravated fleeing or eluding with serious bodily injury or death, according to online records. All are first-degree felonies.
Ybor City, often referred to as “the GaYBOR District,” is a popular LGBTQ destination and considered the center of Tampa’s gay nightlife.
In a statement shared on social media, the GaYBOR District Coalition highlighted the mental, emotional and financial toll the incident will have on the community.
“The tragedy [that] took place at one of our safe spaces … could have and should have been avoided,” the group said. It is “a tragedy that has taken people from us.”
An investigation into the crash is ongoing, though police said they have “no evidence to indicate that Sampson’s actions were targeted toward any specific persons or businesses.”
