A Florida man was arrested this week after he was involved in not one but two hit-and-run crashes, including one in which he killed a Bartow High School student while fleeing the first accident.
Edgardo Joel Rosado Perez, 41, was charged with leaving the scene of a fatal crash, according to the Lakeland Ledger.
The Florida Highway Patrol said that Perez dropped his 18-year-old daughter off at school shortly before 7 a.m. on Wednesday and was involved in a minor accident involving a Chevy SUV. He fled the scene, traveling on Jackson Street at a high rate of speed, where he struck an 18-year-old student who was walking to school.
Again, Perez fled the scene, leaving the student to die on the street.
Troopers later tracked down Perez’s 2018 Hyundai sedan to his hom in South Lakeland, where they found it parked in his garage. Perez, meanwhile, had left in a blue 2017 Ford Fiesta.
Hillsborough County Sheriff’s deputies later found the Fiesta at Brandon Mall and found Perez inside the mall. Perez is currently jailed in Hillsborough County; a judge will reportedly look at whether he should be transferred to Polk County on Monday.
A reporter stopped by Perez’s home Wednesday morning and saw the Hyundai parked in the garage, facing outward. The car’s front end and hood were badly dented, and its windshield was smashed with a large hole on the driver’s side. Troopers on site asked that the reporter not take pictures.
Polk County Public Schools confirmed the death of a student in a traffic accident and said that counselors were on campus throughout the day on Wednesday.
Family members identified the teen as Zachariah Clabough and said his father was struck and killed by a drunk driver three years ago, WTSP reported.
“I can’t believe that we’re having to do it all over again,” Clabough’s sister, Dakota Runyon, said. “The man just got sentenced back in December for killing my dad. And now it’s March and I lose my brother? It’s just so hard.”
“He was such a sweet kid,” she added. “A lot of people say that about their family and their brothers, but he was just such a sweet kid. He was very loved.”
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[Featured image: Zachariah Clabough/GoFundMe]
