Tampa police are searching for a driver who fled twice in a matter of minutes on Halloween night — first from a traffic stop, then from the scene of a fatal crash — leaving one person dead and two others in hospital after a chain of collisions along East 28th Avenue, the Tampa Police Department said in an official release on Sunday, November 1. The driver has not been identified, and detectives say they are following leads while also asking the public for help.
Source: Tampa Police Department, City of Tampa official release, November 1, 2026
What happened, minute by minute
The sequence began at about 11:15 p.m. on Saturday, October 31, 2026, when officers attempted a traffic stop on a 2002 Chevrolet Avalanche near 13th Street and 28th Avenue in Tampa. The driver fled from the stop, and officers did not follow the vehicle, police said — a detail the department stated plainly in its release. What happened next unfolded eastbound on East 28th Avenue, a residential corridor in the eastern part of the city.
Source: Tampa Police Department, City of Tampa official release, November 1, 2026
Continuing east on East 28th Avenue, the Avalanche struck two unoccupied vehicles, police said. The driver then ran a stop sign and hit a third vehicle — a 2019 Nissan Pathfinder carrying three adults. The impact caused the Pathfinder to crash into a pole. After that final collision, the driver of the Avalanche got out of the vehicle and ran from the scene on foot, Tampa Bay 28 reported, citing police.
Source: Tampa Bay 28 (ABC Action News)
The victims: two stable, one dead
Three adults were inside the Pathfinder at the time of the crash. Two of them suffered injuries that were not life-threatening and were taken to a hospital, where their conditions were last listed as stable. The passenger in the rear seat died from their injuries, police said. The department has not released the names of the dead passenger or of the two injured people in the information published so far, and this report does not name them. The two parked vehicles the Avalanche hit first were unoccupied, so no one was hurt in those earlier impacts.
Source: Tampa Police Department, City of Tampa official release, November 1, 2026
Detectives are following leads to identify the driver and are seeking assistance from anyone with information that could lead to an arrest. Call Tampa police at 813-213-6130 and reference case number 26-641095. The investigation is active, and police say additional information will be released as the investigation allows.
Background: a stop that was not pursued, and a crash that followed anyway
The department's statement that officers did not follow the fleeing Avalanche is central to how this case will be read. Police agencies in Florida and across the United States have tightened pursuit policies over the past two decades precisely because chases through residential streets can end in exactly the kind of multi-vehicle crash that followed here — except that in this case the crash happened even without a pursuit, after the driver had already been left behind. Investigators will have to establish, from the stop itself, from witnesses along East 28th Avenue and from any camera footage on the corridor, who was driving the Avalanche and why that driver ran.
Source: Tampa Bay 28 (ABC Action News)
East 28th Avenue runs through established residential neighbourhoods east of downtown Tampa, where parked cars line the street and cross-streets are controlled by stop signs — the two features that shaped this crash. The first two vehicles hit were parked and empty; the fatal impact came at an intersection where, police say, the fleeing driver did not stop at all. It was also Halloween night, one of the busiest nights of the year for pedestrians, parties and late traffic in the city, which is one reason a hit-and-run on a residential street drew an immediate public appeal from detectives.
Source: Tampa Police Department, City of Tampa official release, November 1, 2026
Why this matters beyond one street
Leaving the scene of a crash is a crime in Florida, and leaving the scene of a crash involving a death is treated as one of the most serious driving offences in state law, carrying felony liability once a driver is identified and charged. No charges have been announced in this case because the driver has not yet been identified — every statement in the police release describes an unknown driver, and anyone later arrested will be entitled to the presumption of innocence while the case is tested in court. For the family of the rear-seat passenger, and for the two survivors in hospital, the immediate question is the one detectives put to the public on Sunday: who was driving the 2002 Avalanche?
Source: Tampa Bay 28 (ABC Action News)
What happens next
Detectives are following leads to identify the driver, police said, and the case remains an active investigation. The next developments to watch are an identification or arrest, the release of the dead passenger's name once family notification is complete, and any update on the conditions of the two injured passengers. Anyone who saw a 2002 Chevrolet Avalanche fleeing east on East 28th Avenue late on Halloween night, or who has doorbell or dash-camera footage from the blocks around 13th Street and 28th Avenue, is asked to call 813-213-6130 and quote case 26-641095.
Source: Tampa Police Department, City of Tampa official release, November 1, 2026