PASCO COUNTY, Fla. — A Florida trooper is still in the hospital after he was hurt during a deadly shootout Saturday morning in Pasco County, authorities say.
On Monday, Yoandy Mora Perez, 38, was charged with fleeing and eluding, burglary of a convenience, grand theft, obstruction without violence and felony murder after tried to escape from the trooper.
The incident began at around 3:15 a.m. in Wesley Chapel when a trooper going northbound on Interstate 75 pulled over to check out two pickup trucks that were stolen, the Florida Highway Patrol said.
One of the stolen pickup trucks was reportedly broken down and the other was driven off by two men, which prompted a short car chase down I-75 going north.
Other troopers got involved in the chase as the pickup truck went into Hernando County and the men inside shot and hit a moving tanker truck, FHP said in a news release.
A trooper then conducted a PIT maneuver, which ended the car chase, but began a foot chase, law enforcement says. Mora Perez was arrested immediately by a trooper, while another trooper ran into a nearby wooded area after the other man.
Guns were fired between the trooper and the man being chased with the trooper being shot in the torso, authorities say. As of Monday afternoon, the trooper that was shot remains hospitalized for serious but non-life-threatening injuries.
The man who was shot by the trooper reportedly died at the scene.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Pasco County Sheriff’s Office, Pasco Sheriff’s Crime Scene Unit and the Hernando County Sheriff’s Crime Unit are investigating the shooting.