Three people are under arrest after allegedly causing a fatal crash in Osceola County that stemmed from a chase that began in Polk County in a stolen vehicle early Saturday morning.
According to FHP, the suspects were traveling southbound on Marigold Avenue in a Range Rover that crashed into a Honda Civic traveling eastbound on Peabody Road. A 27-year-old Kissimmee man who was driving the Honda was pronounced dead at the scene.
In connection with the fatal crash, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said in a news conference on Saturday that his deputies were called to a short-term rental home in Davenport where over 150 people were at a party for someone that was moving to Utah. The sheriff’s office said the party overflowed into the road and into other neighborhood yards.
Polk deputies were attempting to clear a path in the road for an EMS vehicle that was needed to provide an extremely intoxicated partygoer with medical care, when they came upon a Range Rover they needed to have move from the roadway.
The SUV’s occupants refused to respond to the deputy’s request to move, which prompted the deputy to move to the back of the vehicle to read its plate number. The Polk deputy found that the vehicle had an expired temporary tag. The Range Rover suddenly fled the scene, sideswiping the Polk County Sheriff’s Office vehicle, Sheriff Judd said. The deputies did not pursue the SUV at that time.
Shortly after, other Polk deputies spotted the Range Rover parked at a nearby convenience store. When deputies approached the Range Rover the vehicle sped away, which began the pursuit that eventually made its way into Osceola County.
“The deputy who is in the pursuit says, ‘I’ve lost the vehicle.’ He doesn’t see it. He continues with his lights activated in the direction that he last saw the vehicle and he drives upon a horrific vehicle crash,” Judd said during the news conference.
That was the crash in Poinciana that left the 27-year-old Kissimmee man dead. The suspects in the Range Rover then attempted to flee the scene of the crash by foot, but three of them were caught. Authorities are still searching for a possible fourth person who they think was in the vehicle, according to FHP.
The Polk County Sheriff’s Office named the three suspects in the Range Rover as 23-year-old Jarquez Malique Page, 31-year-old Angel Burgos Rosello, both from Fayetteville, North Carolina – and 20-year-old Alaric Shango McFarlane from Kissimmee.
Officials said they are still trying to determine who was driving the Range Rover at the time of the fatal crash. Deputies found a rifle in the stolen vehicle.
The Polk County Sheriff’s Office is investigating, with the assistance of Osceola County Sheriff’s Office while the Florida Highway Patrol is handling the investigation of the crash in Osceola.
