Last Updated: 3 p.m.
The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office, assisted by the new FireFlight emergency helicopter, were engaged in a pursuit of someone driving a metallic-blue Ferrari at speeds of up to 110 or 120 mph through the heart of Palm Coast early this afternoon.
By 2:30 p.m., authorities had located the vehicle. By 3 p.m., they had the house at 9 Royal Oak Lane surrounded and were attempting to negotiate with two suspects, who had hidden the stolen car under a tarp as U.S. Marshals were also called in. One of the two suspects was in custody within minutes.
The car was reported stolen in Rhode Island and “hit” a license plate reader initially in St. Johns County. The car’s owner had lost the ability to track it by GPS. It isn’t clear if St. Johns authorities initiated the pursuit there. The Ferrari took I-95 in St. Johns, and exited in Flagler County. More than a dozen Flagler Sheriff’s units were involved in the pursuit.
The Sheriff’s Office identified the two people aboard the Ferrari as Johnathan Costa, 19, and Logan Slezak, 18, driving a blue 2018 Ferrari 488 Spyder. They are wanted in connection with an armed home invasion and vehicle theft in Rhode Island, the agency said.
Nearing 1 p.m., a witness saw the Ferrari speeding southbound on Belle Terre Parkway at over 100 mph through midday traffic, swerving into the turn lane for Buddy Taylor Middle School, and apparently grazing past a child on a bicycle there. “He was making some cuts, and I mean it’s an underestimate of 110 of how fast he was going,” the witness said. “It scared me. I saw a kid on a bicycle in the center isle.”
The witness then saw over a dozen sheriff’s units speed by. The stolen vehicle then went into the W Section, where doorbell-type surveillance video enabled the Sheriff’s Office–through its Real Time Crime Center–to identify the vehicle passing by a house on Whippoorwill Drive. But authorities may have lost visual contact with the car by then.
“We had four schools go into a secure status for a brief time,” Flagler schools’ district spokesman Don Foley said: Rymfire Elementary, Matanzas High School, Wadsworth Elementary and Buddy Taylor Middle School. The number of schools involved somewhat trace the itinerary of the pursuit. “They have all been cleared from their status and are experiencing normal dismissal right now,” at least in the high and middle schools that dismiss first.
“Now he’s somewhere in our county, ducking out,” another witness who had knowledge of the pursuit said, “somewhere in the W Section.” Deputies had also fanned out at key nodes in the city, including Palm Coast Parkway.
A Sheriff’s spokesperson said deputies “scaled it way down, they thought they had him in a particular area, but they’re all prepared at different locations.” The search is ongoing. Past 2:30 p.m., authorities had located the vehicle at a property in the R-Section, dissimulated beneath a tarp.
Below is FireFlight’s search path over the W and R Sections until it flew back to the coounty airport around 2 p.m.:
