Pinellas Park police have located a hit and run driver involved in a crash on US-19 Tuesday night that sent two to the hospital.
According to police, several witnesses saw Travis Hargrove driving a silver Audi A4 recklessly on southbound US-19 near Gulf to Bay Boulevard. Shortly after, Hargrove slammed into the back of a Honda Accord while and kept going.
He over corrected after swerving and went into the northbound lanes where he crashed into a Ford Escape that was slowing down for traffic.
Witnesses followed his car, which went to the Walmart parking lot near Haines Road. An officer in the parking lot on an unrelated incident heard the reports of the hit and run crash and tried to detain Hargrove. But upon doing so, the two got into a struggle.
Back-up was called to the scene and Hargrove was tased.
When officer searched his car, tehy found multiple controlled substances, which turned out to be Ecstasy and Molly. At some point in the search, Hargrove, who was handcuffed, consumed one of the Ecstasy pills.
The 30-year-old was hospitalized from injuries sustained in the crashes and has been charged with three counts of leaving the scene of a crash with injury, one count of driving with a suspended license, two counts of possession of a controlled substance, one count of tampering with evidence, one count of resisting officers with violence and violation of probation.
The driver of the Honda Accord, 27-year-old Eric Emulut, was taken to Bayfront Hospital with non life-threatening injuries.
The driver of the Ford Escape, 52-year-old Terry Rust, was also taken to Bayfront Hospital as a trauma alert. He broke his shoulder, arm, knee and arm. The passenger of the vehicle was injured, but refused medical transport to the hospital.