PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — The man charged with a hit-and-run crash that killed a Pinellas County deputy in September has been scheduled to be arraigned on Monday, followed by a second suspect.
According to Sheriff Gualtieri, on September 23, Deputy Michael Hartwick, 51, was working a traffic detail on I-275 to provide safety and security for the ongoing construction along the road. Gualtieri said Deputy Hartwick arrived at the location around 10:40 p.m.
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The PCSO said Hartwick got out of his cruiser and walked around the front of his car onto the shoulder of the road. Gualtieri said a few minutes later, a frontloader with forklift-type arms passed by the area traveling approximately 20 miles per hour and escorted by a white pickup truck.
PCSO said the front loader hit and killed Deputy Hartwick instantly. The truck stopped, but Gualtieri said the front loader continued down the road before eventually pulling off to the site of the road.
According to Gualtieri, the driver of the front loader is Juan Ariel Molina-Salles, 32, of Honduras. After stopping, Molina-Salles allegedly took off his construction vest and hat and gave them to another worker, and asked him to get rid of both. Deputies said Molina-Salles then left the area, heading north.
The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office said that started a nine-hour manhunt with three helicopters, hundreds of law enforcement officers, and all the police K-9 units.
Gualtieri said the investigation was hindered from the very beginning as most of the construction workers were giving false names because many were also undocumented workers. The sheriff said the company employing the workers is Archer Western in Tampa, and it is a contractor for the Florida Department of Transportation.
“They shouldn’t be out there, and they shouldn’t be doing this,” Gualtieri said.
As the manhunt continued, Gualtieri said they requested the aid of Pasco County bloodhound units to find the suspect. Gualtieri said Molina-Salles, at one point, tried to get his roommate in Tampa to pick him up after the deadly crash. However, the roommate, also an undocumented worker, turned around and refused to come get him when that person saw the law enforcement presence.
According to the sheriff, the move to bring in the bloodhounds paid off, and Molina-Salles was arrested.
Gualtieri said sheriff’s deputies couldn’t do much with the company employing the undocumented workers or with the workers themselves due to immigration law. The sheriff said Molina-Salles had entered the country once illegally and was deported back to Mexico but later returned through Eagle Pass, Texas, and had been in Tampa since March.
Sheriff Gualtieri said Molina-Salles faces a charge of leaving the scene of an accident with a death, and it’s punishable by up to 30 years in prison, with a minimum mandatory sentence of four years in prison if convicted. There’s also an immigration hold on Molina-Salles if he is given bond on the local charge.
The construction worker who allegedly took Molina-Salles’ gear is Elieser Aurelio Gomez-Zalaya, 31, who was also an undocumented immigrant from Honduras. Gualtieri said he was charged with accessory after the fact.
