Florida Sheriff: Previously Deported Illegal Immigrant Killed Deputy in Hit-And-Run

“Mike Hartwick was a cop out there doing his job. He was a good guy. He dedicated his 19 years of service to protecting the people of Pinellas County,” said Gualtieri. Hartwick was 51 and the father of two adult sons.

“He came back in through the Texas border, he is here illegally, and he’s been here in the Tampa Bay Area since about March of this year,” said the sheriff at a Friday press conference documented by WFLA.

He is charged with leaving the scene of an accident involving death, a first-degree felony, and is being held on a $500,000 bond.

“If he were to try and bond on the state charges, the immigration detainer would kick in,” said Gualtieri, meaning Immigration and Customs Enforcement would then take him into custody. “If he doesn’t bond, it will sit. He will go through the process in state court.”

Hartwick was working a construction detail on I-275 near Tampa and arrived at the construction site at around 10:40 p.m. Thursday, Gualtieri said. Shortly after Hartwick arrived, a large frontloader traveling northbound that was allegedly operated by Molina-Salles struck and killed the deputy.

Gualtieri asserted that the illegal alien continued to drive and made a frantic phone call to another construction worker while sobbing before finally pulling off the road. He then gave his hard hat and vest to another illegal alien working on the construction site, who also initially provided a fake name to authorities but was later identified as Elieser Aurelio Gomez-Zelaya, according to the sheriff. Molina-Salles fled northbound, and Gomez-Zelaya allegedly hid the hat and vest in the woods. Gomez-Zelaya is charged with being an accessory after the fact and providing a false name or identity. Authorities are holding him on a $100,135 bond.

Gualtieri said the search for Molina-Salles took nine hours in part because a number of illegal aliens working on the construction site were uncooperative:

The majority of them were giving false names, they were hindering the investigation, not giving us answers to the questions that we needed, and importantly they were all giving us fake names, like these guys, they were all giving us fake names. All of these people are working for Archer Western which is a contractor apparently doing work for the Florida Department of Transportation out of Tampa and this company’s employing all of these illegals, and they’re all out there lying, giving us fake name, fake IDs; a lot of fake IDs out of North Carolina.

With the help of bloodhounds from the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office, authorities were able to find the vest and hard hat that Gomez-Zelaya allegedly hid in the woods and subsequently located Molina-Salles, said Gualtieri.

“He doesn’t have a driver’s license; he’s got nothing,” Gualtieri said of Molina-Salles. “You know, he shouldn’t have been here to begin with, and he shouldn’t have been driving, and he shouldn’t have been working.”

While the manhunt was ongoing, the accused allegedly phoned his roommate in Tampa, who is also in the U.S. illegally.

“He came over and tried to pick him up,” said Gualtieri. “He actually saw all of the law enforcement activity, called him back and said ‘I’m not getting involved in this,’ and he turned around and went back to Tampa.”

On Friday, Hartwick’s body was conveyed from the Medical Examiner’s Office to the Thomas B. Dobies Funeral Home in Tarpon Springs with a large police escort. First responders gathered along the route and saluted the hearse while citizens held American and thin-blue-line flags as it made the solemn journey.