all right good morning I'm uh Pinellas County Sheriff Bob walteri and we're here uh this morning to talk about the uh the death of a deputy overnight um what happened is about 10 30 last night Deputy Michael Hartwick who is 51 years old then with Pinellas County Sheriff's Office for 19 years was working a traffic detail on I-275 north of Gandy there's a lot of construction going on on 275 and he was assigned to assist the construction Crews and provide for safety for them as they did overnight construction work on the interstate Deputy Hartwick arrived around 10 30 last night it is a signed post had his Emergency Equipment on was blocking the two inside southbound Lanes of I-275 he got out of his Cruiser after he parked there and there were cones up and down clearly blocking and the traffic Lanes he out of his Cruiser uh was standing on the shoulder over the road and from what we can determine through the investigation he was facing to the north so again his Cruiser was facing south he was blocking the southbound lanes and he was standing on the shoulder of the road facing northbound one of the construction Crews that was going to pick up the concrete barriers to block off more permanent Lane markings on the interstate was traveling Northbound and it was a big huge construction front loader with the big forklifts on it uh to move these thousand pound concrete barriers uh as Deputy Hartwick was facing uh to the north uh the loader driven by a Hispanic male and by the name of Victor Vasquez struck Deputy Hartwick and killed him instantly and he died at the scene after hitting uh Deputy Hartwick Vasquez continued North probably for about a quarter of a mile pull the loader off into a parking area got out I told another construction worker that he had just killed a deputy and took off his helmet took off his vest and began running from the scene the other worker took his vest in his helmet and hit it in a wooded area to the west of the location Vasquez is still at large we're seeking him now actively again his name is Victor Vasquez he's a Hispanic male about 35 years old we believe that he's still on foot somewhere in the area and again it's an active scene we're actively looking for him uh Deputy hartwick's family's been notified uh and again it's an active investigation I'm telling you what I know at this point uh the charges against Vasquez are we even seen of an accident involving death secretary felony uh the other guy that helped him uh get rid of his best in this helmet his other equipment he's been charged with being an accessory after the fact he's in custody now so that's what I know at this point um you know all I can say is here we go again this is 18 months after Deputy magaly was killed you know we go 110 years in the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office with no line of duty deaths and now we have two in 18 months but Deputy Hartwick was doing what cops do every day he was out doing his job he was on his assigned post he was trying to protect the scene out there for the construction workers and you know ironically he got hit by one of the construction workers on this loader of course what Vasquez should have thought should have done is stop and he should have rendered Aid and he certainly should have acknowledged what he did as opposed to fleen and now being a fugitive so happy to take any questions that you all have that's about what we know at this point do you know if any prior arrests on Vasquez I don't I don't know uh you know I'll be honest with you is is that there's even some you know question as to who he is we're still trying to flush that out now we're going to put on a photograph of him our public information office we'll put a photograph out to you I really ask you all and hope you will is to share that photograph as far and wide as you can and anybody out there the last known address for Vasquez is in Tampa anybody out there that knows where he is right now police called Pinellas County Sheriff's Office or the Tampa Police Department if he's in Tampa let us know because we really want to get him in custody the best way that we can do that right now is with the Public's help with your help and to share that photograph because we got a lot of assets and resources you're gonna hear the helicopter up below because we're standing here now we've got K-9 teams out with the help of the Saint Pete Police Department other law enforcement agencies were just saturating the area but this guy needs to be in custody yeah so you know Mike's been with us for 19 years uh I know him uh he's a side of the Patrol Division he was working out of our North District station on a night shift he's a patrol Deputy a guy who for 19 years dedicated his life to protecting and serving the people of Pinellas County and doing what cops do every day Mike was a good guy he was a good cop he did his job he's got some adult children and of course they've been notified he just went through a divorce his most recent former wife is living out of the area does have some other family members again in the area but they are adult children and his mother's still alive she's been notified his father's deceased that's pretty much what I can tell you about Mike was he working one of those overnight uh off-duty details correct it's an off-duty yes an overtime detail yeah uh 51 years old tell us about just the size of this search it sounds like Arrow yeah there's probably hundreds out here hundreds of cops out here trying to get this guy in custody you know he killed a cop and he ran uh yeah you know and we need to get him in custody he needs to be accountable for what he did and uh it's just mind-boggling that he would do that you know any any new uh because the guy that he shed his vest in his helmet when he told him what he did he knew he killed the deputy and he made a phone call to somebody else after he did it saying that he had killed a deputy so he knew very well what he did and then decided that now he's not going to do the right thing he didn't do the right thing to begin with with how he was driving out there and what he was doing and then he didn't stop and even try and render raid and of course fled and so yeah we had a lot of assets and resources we'll have a lot of assets and resources we're not going to stop till we get this guy in custody there any belief that this guy could be a danger you know I I don't know that because I really don't know enough about him and again we don't have a criminal history I I I'm you know not even 100 positive that that is his name uh that's why we need to get this Photograph out there he's got some identification that we're able to obtain and I it could be fake ID so um the answer that question this is possible but I really don't know I can't tell you investigation today to make the things is that there's somebody out there that knows who this Victor Vasquez is or whatever his name is through this Photograph and something that there's somebody out there that knows him uh he's got family he's got a girlfriend he's got relatives he's got friends he's got somebody this guy in the area of Tampa that we know he was living in is the West Tampa area uh the area uh around Columbus Avenue in that area of Tampa somebody over there knows him and what we really really need the public to do is to step up and help us and help us find this guy tell us where he is so we can go get him in custody and he can be accountable for what he did instructions driving instead of chemical yeah so it's a big huge front loader with a big forklift on it that moves these thousand pound concrete barriers so it was massive and the way he was going he was probably driving I'm approximating it because we do have the incident on video from the dash cam and Deputy hartford's car is he was probably doing on the shoulder of the road with that big vehicle probably at least 20 miles an hour and he was going to a pretty good clip the big forklifts on this thing were straight out and they were up and it looks like that you know you just ran those into Deputy Hartwick and you know he suffered a lot of trauma uh and that's what happens when you get hit by something like that yeah there's no there's no indication at this point it's an intentional Act the intentional Act is fleeing and leaving the scene and not being accountable and doing the wrong thing and of course that's very troubling but there's no indication that it was an intentional ad Sheriff as the bridge looks like to be closed until the day yeah it's going to be closed out there for a while uh and for your purposes and for the Public's purposes as well I think right now it's somewhere around 6 30 I think is that at seven o'clock there's going to be a procession deputy there Deputy Hartwick is being loaded into an ambulance now as we speak uh out there at the scene which of course is on 275 just to the north of where we are in the southbound Lanes so they're going to leave out there at 7 A.M they're going to come South on 275 get off here at Roosevelt they're going to come by here in front of us on Roosevelt to Ulmerton Road and down to the medical examiner's office so anybody that wants to get out and pay respects to Deputy Hartwick um uh we would like to see that and get the public support uh so anybody that wants to do that there'll be Law Enforcement Officers finding the route but they'll leave at 7 A.M I would imagine they'll pass by here somewhere probably around 705 710 but the route will be in Ulmerton and to the medical examiner's office all right well I appreciate it and again appreciate your help and hopefully you guys will help us get that photograph out and the public will help us and get this guy in custody appreciate it your time thank you