The crash happened near Roosevelt Avenue after Deputy Michael Hartwick, 51, started his shift at about 10:30 p.m. Thursday, Gualtieri said at a news conference Friday morning. Hartwick was working a traffic detail to provide safety for road crews working on Interstate 275 overnight, Gualtieri said. Hartwick blocked the two southbound lanes of the interstate, exited his patrol cruiser and was standing on the shoulder facing north when Juan Ariel Molina-Sales, 32, a construction worker operating a front-end loader, struck him, Gualtieri . he said. Gualtieri initially gave a different name for Molina-Sales, but at a second news conference Friday afternoon, he said investigators were given false information by workers at the scene. Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Michael Hartwick, 51, was struck and killed Thursday night by a construction worker driving a front-end loader, according to Sheriff Bob Gualtieri. [ The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office ] The forklift was traveling about 20 miles per hour when it hit Hartwick, killing him instantly, Gualtieri said. Molina-Salles continued for about a mile after hitting the deputy, then stopped in a parking lot and told another construction worker that he had killed a deputy, according to the sheriff. That worker took Molina-Salles’ construction equipment and hid it in a wooded area. Molina-Sales took off running, Gualtieri said. Law enforcement across the region spent Friday morning searching for Molina-Salles, using three helicopters and K9 units—including dogs from the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office that used Molina-Salles’ equipment to pick up the scent and take him into custody at approximately 8:40 a.m. Friday. He was expected to be booked into the Pinellas County Jail Friday on a charge of leaving the scene of an accident with death, a first-degree felony that carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison. Molina-Salles is from Honduras and is an undocumented immigrant who told investigators he has been in the Tampa Bay area since March, Gualtieri said. His last known address is in Tampa. The worker who helped Molina-Salles hide his equipment initially gave deputies a fake name, Gualtieri said, but investigators eventually confirmed he is Elieser Aureilio Gomez-Zelaya, 31. Gomez-Zelaya is also from Honduras and is an undocumented immigrant, Gualtieri said. He will be charged as an accessory after the fact, a felony. Gualtieri said other workers at the scene also gave false names. “They were obstructing the investigation, not giving us answers to the questions we needed,” Gualtieri said.
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Want more of our free, weekly newsletters in your inbox? Let’s start. Explore all your options Juan Ariel Molinas-Salles, 32, was arrested Friday, September 23, 2022, on charges of leaving the scene of an accident causing death after deputies say he fatally struck a Pinellas sheriff’s deputy, Michael Hartwick with a front-end loader at a construction site on Interstate 275 near Roosevelt Avenue the night before and then ran away. [ Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office ] The sheriff said Molina-Salles does not have a driver’s license and gave his employer a fake North Carolina ID. He said he told his employer he knew how to operate the front-end loader from his construction experience in Honduras, according to Gualtieri. Gualtieri said the men work for Archer Western Construction. The Tampa-based company is among the contractors hired by the Florida Department of Transportation to replace the Howard Frankland Bridge. A spokesman for the company and a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation did not immediately return messages Friday afternoon. Authorities initially closed I-275 in both directions, diverting southbound traffic to Ulmerton Road and northbound traffic to Gandy Avenue. The northbound lanes reopened at 10 a.m. and the southbound lanes at about 12:15 p.m. The scene of SR-688 E at Interstate 275 Friday morning, where a manhunt has gathered for the construction worker accused of fatally hitting Pinellas Sheriff’s Deputy Michael Hartwick with a front-end loader on I-275 Thursday night. The suspect was taken into custody at 8:40 a.m. Friday. [ DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD | Times ] “All I can say is, here we go again,” Gualtieri said at the first press conference on Friday. “It is 18 months since Deputy Magli was killed. We’re now 110 years into the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office without a single fatality in the line of duty, and now we’ve had two in 18 months.” Deputy Michael J. Magli, 30, was killed in the line of duty on February 17, 2021. The 30-year-old deputy, husband and father of two was killed trying to stop a drunken driver fleeing from other deputies. Robert Allen Holzaepfel, 35, was sentenced this month to 35 years in prison after pleading guilty to third-degree murder, manslaughter and felony driving while his license was suspended or revoked. A Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office deputy is searching an area off State Road 688 E at Interstate 275 for a construction worker accused of fatally hitting Pinellas Deputy Michael Hartwick with a front-end loader Thursday night. The worker fled after the crash and was taken into custody at 8:40 a.m. Friday, deputies said. [ DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD | Times ] Hartwick was a deputy with the Sheriff’s Office for 19 years, Gualtieri said. “Mike was a good kid, a good cop,” Gualtieri said. “He did his job.” Hartwick has two grown sons who were notified of Hartwick’s death, as was his mother, Gualtieri said. The Sheriff’s Office will escort the deputy’s body from the Coroner’s Office to the Thomas B. Dobies Funeral Home in Tarpon Springs beginning at 3:30 p.m. of Friday. Outside of work, Hartwick loved to ride his motorcycle and was the road leader for the Indian Motorcycle Riders Group, Skyway Chapter, 1982 in St. Petersburg. Hartwick was a great planner and enjoyed introducing the group to new restaurants on their rides, said club member Ron Herman, 61. “He always joked that we were a riding group with a food problem because he knew the places to go and eat,” Herman said. Hartwick enjoyed riding in Pasco and Hernando counties and enjoyed the camaraderie of the group, said Jim Masterson, who met Hartwick through the club about two years ago. “He was very welcoming and inclusive, very open,” said Masterson, 57, adding that Hartwick had a great sense of humor. “He was very interested in how everyone was doing and what was going on in our lives, and he was good at sharing what was going on with his,” Masterson said. “And he was just a good friend.” This is a developing story. Stay with me tampabay.com for updates.
