Suspect in fatal hit-and-run arrested

[STEPHANIE GARRY | Times]

ST. PETERSBURG -- Police say they have arrested the driver of a truck that killed a bicyclist and injured nine others in a hit-and-run crash last night.

Denise Battles, 18, left, was charged with leaving the scene of a fatal crash and vehicular homicide. Police say she ran away after the crash but turned herself in at the station around noon.

Battles did not have a license, police say. Nine people were injured.

Police spokesman Bill Proffitt said the incident began when police spotted a 2008 Dodge pickup driving erratically on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street S near 22nd Avenue. Police tried to stop the truck, but the driver kept going north "at a very high rate of speed and in a reckless manner." The Dodge had two passengers.

When the truck got to the 1300 block of King Street, it lost control and slid toward the northwest corner of 13th Avenue S, "went airborne," struck a fire hydrant and flipped.

The truck struck and killed Steven Mincey, 49, of St. Petersburg, who had been riding his bicycle on the north side of King Street. The truck also struck several people who were outside near Ike's Liquors and four parked vehicles.

Proffitt said police never pursued the Dodge and that the officer pulled away after its driver began speeding north. He said the two passengers agreed with that account. They told investigators that they had asked the driver to slow down.

Injured at the crash scene and taken to Bayfront Medical Center were James Lewis, who is in critical condition; Cliford Etheridge, stable condition; Kiwaner Robinson, stable condition; Lucretia Mullan, guarded condition; Shalunda Jenkins, treated and released; and Johnny Hutchins, treated and released.

Three people were taken to St. Anthony's Hospital: Michelle Brown, treated and released; Latoya Jackson, treated and released; and Lura Spradley, treated and released.

All of the injured people have St. Petersburg addresses. Ages were not available.

A pickup truck struck and killed a bicyclist late Wednesday after a police officer tried to pull the driver over near 22nd Avenue and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street S.  [Photo by Lamar Walker]

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Curtis Krueger, Times staff writer

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