Good afternoon. Anybody not ready? Um, I'm Penel County Sheriff Bob Walter and I'm here uh today to talk about a very tragic accident that occurred uh night before last. I'll run through uh some of the facts here as to what happened uh explain to you the current status of things and uh we have a video of the crash which uh we'll show you. Um on January 12th two nights ago at about uh 7:40 p.m. Corporal Joe Miner who is assigned to our narcotics division. So, he's an undercover nar narcotics detective and he was operating a 2011 Buick Lacrosse and he was getting ready to with other detectives go on a surveillance uh in South St. Petersburg. Uh they had stopped at a Dunkin Donuts uh on MLK Street North just south of 62nd Avenue North in St. Petersburg to get coffee. Um, as I said, Corporal Miner was operating this sheriff's office vehicle and as you will see when we get into the video, uh, he pulled out of the parking lot of the Dunkin Donuts. He had three other detectives who were in the car with him. And as he pulled out, uh, onto MLK Street North, he stopped at the crest of the parking lot as it would go out onto Ninth Street and eased his way out onto Ninth Street. At the time of the crash, uh he was driving probably less than 5 miles an hour and eased into that intersection. Um at that time, uh Eli Ulabari, who's a 20-year-old male, was operating his motorcycle, which is the motorcycle that's here in S. Eli, is a picture of Eli on the motorcycle from previously. He was operating the motorcycle southbound on MLK Street North and he was traveling at about 32 m an hour and we know that from the investigation and it's a 40 mph zone. Eli was wearing a helmet and he had his light on the motorcycle. Eli was doing absolutely nothing wrong. Eli was on his way home uh for dinner. Uh he worked at a nearby Publix and he was on his meal break as he was heading home. And I want to stress that uh under no circumstances was Eli doing anything other than obeying the law, traveling within the speed limit, and doing everything that he should be doing uh in riding that motorcycle. Um Corporal Miner pulled out uh in front of Eli and violated Eli's right of way. Uh Eli locked up the brake on the motorcycle and laid the motorcycle down and the motorcycle crashed into the side of Corporal Miner's vehicle. Eli was transported uh to Bayfront Medical Center where he remains today in extremely critical condition. Uh he's expected to live, but uh he's paralyzed from the midchest down. Both lungs were collapsed. His liver and kidney were lacerated. He has a brain bleed and his spinal cord was cut in two places and his spinal column fractured. I was at the hospital earlier today. I spoke with Eli's father and uh the family is there and again he is expected to survive. We've conducted a very thorough uh complete and objective investigation and determined that sole responsibility for this terrible accident rests with Corporal Miner and the sole liability rests with the Penelis County Sheriff's Office as his employer and responsible for his actions while he's on duty. Uh this morning, Corporal Miner was issued a traffic citation for violation of the rightway for failure to yield. uh because of the serious bodily injury, it requires a mandatory court appearance before a judge and he'll appear uh in court uh at that court date in February. Um I have also um under Florida law, the maximum liability without a claims bill from the legislature uh is $200,000. I've written a check for $200,000 and offered it to Eli's parents. Uh it's a tragedy, a very sad situation. Uh and it's one of those things that every time you turn around or you turn the corner, um there's just something more to this that gets worse. Today is Eli's 21st birthday. Um he was getting ready to, according to his dad, and I talked to him this morning, he was getting ready. He's Mormon and getting ready to go on a Mormon missionary trip. Uh he was going up to Jacksonville and had made plans to go on the mission trip. By all accounts, he was a 20-year-old 21-year-old today uh that is doing what all 21 year olds should do and we want them all to do. He was working. He was going to school. He was a good kid. Uh doing all the right things in life. And this is just one of those very uh tragic uh events. So, I'll play the video here uh for you. You can see as you can see here is where the crash happened. And again, this is the Dunkin Donuts parking lot. minor was pulling out here and that's the point of the impact just south of 62nd Avenue North. The video was captured by a nearby business and is very very short. Uh I'll play we can play it through a couple times because it is short. Uh what you'll see is when the video comes on you'll see Corporal Min Corporal Miner's vehicle exited onto MLK Street. You'll see a car pass and then shortly after the car pass, you'll see him pull out onto MLK Street and then you'll see the motorcycle coming down. If you look closely and you watch it closely, you'll see where Eli hits the brakes. You'll see the sparks from where the motorcycle hits the ground and then you'll see it slide into the car. Just for also cuz somebody will somebody will ask is that the time that's on this video. It comes from a nearby business. It says 1900 or 7:00. That clock is off. The crash happened at about 7:40 p.m. Play one more time.