TAMPA, Fla. _ A driver made a U-turn, crossed a lane of traffic and a grassy easement then sped up and deliberately slammed into a father and his two young sons as they rode down a bike path, killing the father and the injuring the two sons, Tampa police said.
"What type of person would purposely run over a family that was just bicycling down a bike path?" Tampa Police Chief Brian Dugan said at a Monday news conference. "The suspect accelerated and intentionally ran over the victim."
Mikese Morse, 30, fled the scene of the mid-day Sunday collision and was arrested later on charges including premeditated first-degree murder and leaving the scene of a crash with death. He was held without bail at the Hillsborough County Jail.
The collision occurred just before noon as Pedro Aguerreberry, 42, and his sons Lucas Aguerreberry, 8, and Bennett Aguerreberry, 3, were riding bicycles along a bicycle path separated by a grass median on New Tampa Boulevard near Wood Sage Drive, Dugan said. The father was pulling his youngest son in a trailer device attached to his bicycle and the other son was pedaling alongside, an incident report said.
Suddenly, a 2008 maroon Dodge Avenger driven by Morse came tearing across the grassy median, police said, slamming into them and then fleeing east toward Bruce B. Downs Blvd. Morse did nothing to stop and help the victims, police said.
Bennett Aguerreberry was seriously injured and Lucas suffered minor injuries, police said. Both are expected to recover.
The car was located Sunday by police patrol units about two blocks from the home of Morse's parents in the Pebble Creek area of New Tampa.
The car had plastic taped to the front windshield to conceal the damage, police said.
Morse was located at his parents' home and taken to Tampa police headquarters downtown, where he was arrested about 9:45 p.m. Sunday.
He had recently been involuntarily institutionalized for mental health evaluation under Florida's Baker Act, Dugan said.
"He appears to be someone who is disturbed," the chief said, "and investigators are still piecing that together."
Police could find no sign of past contact between Morse and the Aguerreberrys, Dugan said.
"They were doing everything right," he said Sunday. "They had bicycle helmets on."
A former long jumper, Morse was a three-time United States Olympic Trials qualifier and two-time finalist (2008, 2016).
