ST. PETERSBURG - Moments after a Florida Highway Patrol trooper tried pulling him over, a 25-year-old St. Petersburg man collided with another vehicle with his car Sunday afternoon, killing the other driver, authorities said.
William Watson
William Watson, 25, was charged with vehicular homicide and fleeing to elude police, among other things, following the 3:36 p.m. wreck at 34th Street North and 36th Avenue, the patrol said.
The driver killed has been identified as Donald B. Dillard, 51, of St. Petersburg.
St. Petersburg police report that after the wreck, Watson ran off, breaking into one home in the 2900 block of 27th Avenue North and hitting someone there before breaking into a second residence.
Watson was arrested soon afterward.
Watson was taken to Edward White Hospital for minor injuries and then transported to the Pinellas County Jail. He was being held without bail.
Before the wreck, a trooper had tried pulling over the Chevrolet Malibu that Watson was driving at excessive speeds on Interstate 275, but the Malibu took off, and the trooper turned off his overhead lights, said patrol spokesman Larry Coggins. The trooper saw the Malibu go onto 54th Avenue and then onto U.S. 19, but lost the car, Coggins said.
The trooper was trying to catch up when he came upon the intersection where the Malibu had collided with a Corvette that had turned in front of it, the patrol said.
Coggins said at no time was there a police pursuit.
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