A 19-year-old Zephyrhills man was arrested shortly after midnight Sunday after Florida Highway Patrol troopers say a Chevrolet Corvette tore down Interstate 275 at about 130 mph, hit two vehicles and kept going before it was stopped near State Road 56.
Yaseen Algmaiee is accused of leading the chase, which began late Saturday when a trooper was told another trooper in Pinellas County was trying to catch up to the Corvette on Interstate 275. The car was first seen near mile marker 34, then later spotted again northbound near mile marker 47, where a trooper activated emergency lights and sirens. Algmaiee did not stop.
The Corvette was said to have been moving with its taillights off early in the pursuit and making multiple lane changes around other vehicles as it continued northbound. By the time it reached the exit ramp toward State Road 56 near mile marker 59 in Wesley Chapel, the driver was allegedly pushing about 130 mph. The chase then spilled onto State Road 56, where the Corvette tried to move between two other vehicles, struck both and kept driving.
A trooper then used a PIT maneuver to stop the car and end the pursuit. That detail matters because the crash did not end the chase on its own. It took an intervention after the Corvette had already collided with two vehicles, and the affidavit does not say whether anyone was injured in those crashes.
Algmaiee was taken to the Hillsborough County jail and faces charges of aggravated fleeing to elude law enforcement and leaving the scene of a crash involving property damage. The unanswered question is not whether the chase happened; it did. It is how much damage the wreck left behind, beyond the collisions that brought the Corvette to a stop.
