Search continues for Bradenton hit-and-run driver who killed bicyclist

Search for hit-and-run driver who killed bicyclist

Kailey Tracy reports

BRADENTON, Fla. - The Bradenton Police Department is asking for the community’s help to find who hit and killed a 36-year-old man riding a bike on Saturday.

"This is a very serious crime," Meredith Censullo, BPD’s public information officer, said. "We have a 36-year-old man that was struck and killed and left to die, and the driver just kept going. That's a serious crime. That indicates someone who just didn't want to take responsibility, and we need to talk to that person."

According to Censullo, the bicyclist was crossing 14th Street West on Saturday around 11:30 p.m. when a vehicle, traveling south, hit and killed him. The driver is still on the run. Police have not identified the victim.

"Given the time of night, we really weren't able to track down any witnesses that had good, solid information," Censullo said.

The time of night, BPD said, also affected what they found on cameras at nearby businesses and residences. Traffic cameras, Censullo added, don’t record video.

"We were not able at this point to develop any investigative leads from the video that we have obtained," she said.

"Our traffic homicide investigators have developed some evidence from the scene that may indicate a type of vehicle that was involved, but at this point, we don't have enough information about that vehicle to definitively say exactly what type of vehicle we're looking for," Censullo said.

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Police are asking the community for any information related to this crash.

"We're now about a day and a half out. Maybe the driver has said something to someone, or maybe the vehicle involved has been taken into a body shop, for example," Censullo said.

"We need to hold that person accountable for our community, as well as for the family and loved ones of the man who was killed that night," she said.

Courtesy: Bradenton Police Department

Police said in May, a 43-year-old man, Juan Castillo, was crossing the same street a few blocks away from Saturday’s incident and was hit and killed. The vehicle in that case stayed at the scene.

Jessica Castillo said her husband was walking to get food when he was hit.

"He was a wonderful man," she said. "He was a hardworking man, a loving family man. He has many, many people that love and care for him and he was a good person."

Jessica Castillo said she, unfortunately, wasn’t surprised when she heard about the most recent accident.

"It's very, very heavy with pedestrians and drivers and pedestrians are at fault, but the drivers are two because they do not do the speed limit," she said. "They speed down through that area knowing that it's heavy with pedestrians."

Jessica Castillo said she and her family are now trying to advocate to make the street safer. Castillo said she’d like to see crosswalks that light up along the stretch of 14th Street West.

Community members in the area on Monday said the area always has a lot of pedestrian and vehicle traffic.

BPD asks anyone with any information about Saturday’s crash to contact police at (941) 932-9300 or submit tips anonymously to manateecrimestoppers.com.

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