A Tampa man has been arrested and faces charges of premeditated murder and leaving the scene of an accident in the fatal hit-and-run Sunday morning that left a New Tampa man dead and his two young children injured.
According to police, Mikese Morse was arrested and is being held without bail at the Hillsborough County jail.
At a press conference Monday morning, Police Chief Brian Dugan said Morse was seen by another driver traveling westbound on New Tampa Blvd. when his car made a u-turn and then purposefully crossed over the road near Wood Sage Dr. and plowed over Pedro Aguerreberry and his 3- and 8-year-old sons, Lucas and Bennett, who were out riding bikes.
“He accelerated and drove over the victims,” said Tampa Police Chief Brian Dugan. “It was very clear that he had run these people over and knew that he had run them over. He intentionally drove his 2008 red 4-door Dodge…onto the bike path. At no time did he stop to render aid.”
Dugan said police were still unclear why Morse veered onto the bike path. He said what Morse did was “random and purposeful.”
Dugan said the police have had past contact with Morris. On June 12, he walked into one of their district offices exhibiting odd behavior and was Baker Acted that day. He has had a number of minor traffic infractions.
“He is someone who appears to be disturbed,” Dugan said.
Aguerreberry died Sunday night. His boys are expected to make a full recovery.
Tampa Police Chief Brian Dugan talks to the media (WFLA)
UPDATE: The vehicle involved in the hit and run earlier today near New Tampa Blvd. and Wood Sage Dr. has been located. Hillsborough County deputies located the vehicle in the Pebble Creek area in New Tampa. The investigation is still ongoing.
Tampa Police are currently investigating a hit and run that took place on New Tampa Blvd. near Wood Sage Dr. in West Meadows, and are asking for the public’s help in locating the suspected vehicle, a red- or maroon-colored Dodge Caliber with front-end damage and a broken windshield.
According to police, just before noon today, the vehicle struck a family of three — a 42-year-old father and his 3- and 8-year-old sons — who were riding their bikes on a marked bike path, and then fled the scene.
The victims were transported to a local hospital. The 3-year-old was airlifted and has serious injuries. The 8-year-old is going to be fine.
This is not the car involved, but is a Dodge Caliber for those unfamiliar what one may look like.
“The 42-yr-old father has life-threatening injuries…it’s not a good prognosis for him,” Tampa Police Chief Brian Dugan told the media. “This is a family that’s in a very tough situation. Their lives changed instantly today.”
The vehicle was last seen heading south on Bruce B. Downs Blvd.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Tampa Police Department immediately at 813-231-6130.
The site of failed Mexican restaurant Vuelo’s — which was previously Señor T’s, which was previously Romano’s Macaroni Grill — and which has been vacant since May 8 of last year, may soon be showing some signs of life.
According to Curtis Rorebeck, the managing broker at Hybridge, the site, located right on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. just north of the Home Depot, has drawn the interest of a handful of suitors since going dark.
While stopping short of calling a deal imminent to sell to a group that would open a new restaurant at the location, Rorebeck did say there is an offer under review. “We are going through the process,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of interest on that property.”
Rorebeck even said that on more than one occasion since Vuelo’s closed, the property was under contract, but those deals fell through. The current negotiations, however, are “promising,” he says.
While the location has been blamed in years past as not being ideal, it will be across the street from (and a little south of) the new Villages at Hunter’s Lake planned for 2019-20, which will feature the New Tampa Cultural Center, 241 apartments, a “green” grocer and other retail stores.
MORE FOOD, MON: A few steps south Chili’s (next to Oakley’s Grille), the space formerly occupied by Dairy Queen is being renovated and expected to open as a Jamaican restaurant.
NEW TAMPA PIANO & PEDAGOGY’S NEW HOME?: New Tampa Piano & Pedagogy Academy (NTPPA), which is currently operating adjacent to the New Tampa Dance Theatre on Cross Creek Blvd., is expecting to break ground on its own building near the end of the summer.
Just a few steps west of its current location, developer Abhishek Jain has filed for a permit to build a 4,000-sq.-ft. building, 2,810 sq. ft. of which will be the NTPPA’s new home.
Considering the new location is next to a dance studio, music academy and Creative World School, Jain would like to lease the remaining 1,200 sq. ft. to a youth-oriented business, or perhaps a pediatrician.
Jain’s wife Judith is the founder and executive director of the NTPPA.
S.R. 56 BUSY AGAIN: On the north side of S.R. 56 (across from the Tampa Premium Outlets) in the Cypress Creek Town Center Development of Regional Impact (DRI) in Wesley Chapel, things are going to start heating up again, as a flurry of building permits are working their way through Pasco County.
Just this month, permitting requests have been made for the beginnings of a 20,000-sq.-ft. Home Goods store, a 40,565-sq.ft. Burlington Coat Factory, and a 24,254-sq.-ft. Earth Fare, the first green grocer to land in Wesley Chapel (as we reported last issue).
Permits for four shell buildings, ranging between 1,919-sq.-ft. and 3,000-sq.ft., are being processed as well, although no tenants had been publicly named at our press time.
Those buildings could be homes for some businesses that Dilip Kanji, the Impact Properties president and developer of the Hyatt Place Hotel & Convention Center, said previously were on their way. As previously reported by the Neighborhood News, those include Chipotle Mexican Grill, Total Wine & More, Walk-On Bistreaux and Golf Galaxy.
Long-Time New Tampa Resident Jim Davison debates roadway connections with Pasco County residents at an open house May 29. (Photo: John Cotey)
When the Tampa City Council met in early May to debate a rezoning that would allow M/I Homes to proceed with building 700 new homes in K-Bar Ranch, council members got stuck on one major point:
There aren’t enough roads in the area to allow residents to get in and out of their new neighborhood.
Without connections to Pasco County, particularly merging Kinnan St. in New Tampa with Mansfield Blvd. in Meadow Pointe, more homes would mean more residents who are essentially trapped with just one road, Kinnan St., out of their neighborhoods.
So the discussion was postponed until June 28 in the hopes that Pasco, with help from a yearlong Wesley Chapel Roadways Connection Study, which was near completion, would provide some answers.
The report is out. And no, it hasn’t.
At a May 29 open house at the Porter campus of Pasco-Hernando State Community College, an executive summary of the report was presented to roughly 75 locals — including politicians on both sides of the argument — but didn’t address actual connections in a way many who attended may have hoped.
How that ends up affecting future development in K-Bar Ranch remains to be seen. The Tampa City Council will take up the debate again June 28. But, any decision they make will have to be made without any promises of any connections between Hillsborough and Pasco counties. And, Pasco is in no rush to make a decision on the issue.
The public comment period about the Roadways Study ends today, and AECOM, the consulting firm that did the study, isn’t scheduled to present them to the Pasco MPO until August. A final study report will be finalized following that meeting, and then Pasco County will run a public opinion poll — basically an up or down vote on each of the connections, as well as combinations of connectors — in September or October.
The Pasco MPO will then meet in October to review the final study and decide what recommendations to make to Pasco’s Board of County Commissioners (BOC). The BOC will have the final say, with no date given for a final vote.
Connecting only Kinnan to Mansfield — the streets still separated by a 30-foot hop-skip-and-a-jump patch of dirt and bushes — without any other connections being made, was not studied.
District 2 commissioner Mike Moore, who represents the Meadow Pointe area, says connecting Meadow Point Blvd. to K-Bar Ranch Pkwy remains his favored option, and is opposed to connecting Kinnan-Mansfield.
“I think some people possibly thought the study would show maybe just a couple of hundred cars a day (added to Mansfield traffic with the connection),” Moore said, “but the study shows obviously that’s not the case. It’s anywhere from 500 to 4,000 (according to traffic projections). If anyone thinks Kinnan-Mansfield can handle 4,000 cars a day, it’s just not reality.”
When it was pointed out to Moore that the gap between 500 and 4,000 is significant, and that 500 cars could be only 250 making round trips, he said “That’s still a lot.”
At the original roadways meeting May 15, 2017, Pasco residents who filled out public comment cards were opposed to the connection, but only by a 37-36 margin.
“Now that we’ve done the study, and people can see the numbers, the true numbers, I have a sneaking suspicion that will change quite a bit,” Moore said.
While extensive, the study included no recommendations. It only went as far as listing positives — alternate routes during accidents, economic benefits, convenient travel to attractions in Hillsborough County, and relieving the traffic of up to 7,000 vehicles per day on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. and Cross Creek Blvd. — and negatives, like the increased traffic with minimal congestion relief for Pasco County roads and almost $2-million in additional improvements needed, with connections. The study looked at four alternatives, including a no-build alternative that would put up a gate for emergency vehicles and bicycle and pedestrian accommodations at Kinnan-Mansfield, but no connection for general public use.
Other alternatives studied included:
• Connecting Kinnan-Mansfield and K-Bar Ranch Blvd. to Meadow Pointe;
• Connecting only K-Bar Ranch Blvd to Meadow Pointe Blvd.; and
• Doing all three possible connections: Kinnan-Mansfield, K-Bar Ranch Pkwy.-Meadow Pointe Blvd., and Wyndfields Blvd. to K-Bar Ranch Pkwy.
Tampa’s District 7 councilman Luis Viera, who represents New Tampa, attended the meeting and was disappointed by the lack of specificity in the study. However, he was pleased by the prospect of at least an emergency gate at Kinnan-Mansfield.
Moore said Pasco County proposed one two years ago, and even offered to split the costs, but Tampa rejected it.
“I’m not looking at this from a political perspective,” Viera said. “If we can have a compromise for now, if a gate is built only for first responders, that’s a net positive. We obviously want to go further. That’s getting to first base, and we want a home run. But right now, that would be a net positive for both sides from a safety perspective.”
For years, whatever it was that was ailing Courtney Krysa befuddled doctors.
Fatigue and horrible joint pain had transformed her life into a difficult struggle. Even when she was able to play soccer for Freedom High, Courtney would sometimes pass out. She developed a heart arrhythmia, several neurological deficits and debilitating arthritis.
That finally led to a definitive diagnosis — Courtney had Advanced Neurological Lyme disease, likely the result of a tick bite she was treated for in 2008.
Although she wasn’t diagnosed with Lyme disease at the time of the bite — never developing the bulls-eye rash that is often the first symptom of the disease — she has suffered with the consequences and a series of setbacks ever since.
While there is no actual cure for the disease, and very few effective treatments, after years of searching, Katie Krysa thinks…hopes…she has found the answer.
But mostly, for the first time in a while, Katie says she has found hope.
On Saturday, June 23, at noon, at the Hunter’s Green Country Club Sports Club, friends of Katie will host “A Twist of Lyme” tennis social to raise money for Courtney’s continued treatment.
Katie, a Tampa Palms resident who plays league tennis with teams based out of West Meadows, is not surprised the New Tampa tennis community is stepping forward to help cover the costs of Courtney’s treatments. Katie says she already has exhausted her bank account by spending $20,000 for six weeks of the treatment; another 18-24 weeks is likely needed.
“I’ve relied on many of my tennis friends during this entire process,” she says. “They have been so great.”
A minimum $30 donation is requested to be part of the social, which also will have silent auctions and raffles.
The first 50 people to sign up will receive a tennis towel, and everyone who plays gets lunch, two margaritas and an afternoon of tennis and music, provided by D.J. Robby Rob.
Once a vibrant, energetic teenager, her mother says Lyme disease has ravaged Courtney’s body, penetrating her nervous system and damaging her kidneys. Courtney missed most of her senior year at Freedom, and couldn’t attend graduation ceremonies.
Katie says she has spent over $100,000 visiting clinics in Cleveland and Nashville, as well as visiting dozens of specialists, with every potential solution, most of them not covered by insurance, leading to a dead end.
Ready to give up, Katie says she discovered David Minkoff, M.D., an alternative medicine specialist, at the LifeWorks Wellness Center in Clearwater.
LifeWorks specializes in treating chronic illnesses, and Katie says she has been encouraged by the early results.
Courtney, who has spent much of the past few years bed-ridden and in a wheelchair, can today walk 25 feet without assistance, and has displayed cognitive improvements.
“I didn’t know where to go anymore before I found this treatment,” Katie says. “I didn’t have a lot of hope. I just thought I was going to have to watch her slowly get worse.”
After years of disappointment, Katie is optimistic her last hope can help restore to Courtney some of the quality of life she once enjoyed.
To read more about Courtney’s story and register for the A Twist of Lyme tennis social, visit HopeRisingInc.org. The HGCC Sports Club is located at 18050 Hunter’s Oak Ct.
A Tampa man has been arrested and faces charges of premeditated murder and leaving the scene of an accident in the fatal hit-and-run Sunday morning that left a New Tampa man dead and his two young children injured.
