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St. Petersburg Man Arrested In Clearwater Carjacking

News Channel 8 photo by JIM FARQUHAR

A driver in a red pickup truck struck the side of a building Tuesday night, kept going and crashed a second time after a police pursuit, authorities said.

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TBO.com

Published: October 15, 2008

Updated: 10/15/2008 02:22 pm

Larry Donell Jones

CLEARWATER - A St. Petersburg man is in custody following a carjacking Tuesday night that ended with the stolen truck crashing first into a house and then a building.

Larry Donell Jones, 44, of 2535 Union St., was booked into the Pinellas County Jail at 2:30 a.m. today on charges of armed carjacking, leaving the scene of a crash with injury, fleeing and eluding, and resisting arrest without violence.

At 9 p.m. Tuesday, dispatchers received a call that a Nissan Frontier had been taken from a 17-year-old boy at 201 Seminole St., city spokeswoman Joelle Castelli said.

Jones had asked the teenager if he could talk to him for a minute, but then he jumped into the passenger seat and whipped out a gun, according to arrest affidavits. Jones and the teen struggled over the firearm, and at one point, the teenager hit Jones in the face, causing him to fall to the ground, the affidavits said.

When the teenager ran away to notify authorities, Jones took the Frontier, the affidavits said.

The stolen pickup then crashed into a house at 513 N. Garden Ave., and then into an Aamco transmission repair shop at 201 S. Martin Luther King Jr. Ave., Castelli said in a prepared statement.

Details remained sketchy today. There was reportedly a woman passenger in the stolen pickup truck when it crashed for the final time, but authorities have not said whether she was an accomplice. They did say she had a broken leg and was taken to Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg by helicopter.

There was an attempt by Clearwater police to stop the Frontier before it crashed into the Aamco shop, but it was unclear whether patrol officers were chasing the vehicle.

After that crash, Jones ran off but was tracked, with the help of police dogs, to a roof at 1123 Gould St. He was examined at Morton Plant Hospital before he was booked into the jail.

Stay with TBO.com for updates.

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