Mario Bonilla Florida teen killed in car accident after teen trio steal unlocked Maserati in St Petersburg. Keondrick Lang expected to survive, while Malachi Daniels is not.
A stolen Maserati led to one teen killed and two others critically injured after the trio stole the high performing vehicle with the keys still in its ignition only to lose control and crash in southern Florida over the weekend.
Mario Bonilla, 15, was identified as the teen boy killed in a fiery crash early Sunday morning in St Petersburg, after the silver Maserati the teens had stolen for a high speed joyride went horribly wrong – with the vehicle crashing into a business sign and flipping over.
The vehicle’s driver, Keondrick Lang, 15, according to officials was expected to survive. Malachi Daniels, 16, who was in the back seat when the luxury car flipped over, is in critical condition. The boy was not expected to make it. Bonilla was sitting in the front passenger seat at the time of the car crash the Pinellas County Sheriffs Department stated in a release.
Lang broke into the unlocked Maserati which had been abandoned in the wake of Hurricane Ian and drove the sports car at a high rate of speed into the side of a building.
Police were expected to provide more information at a press conference on Tuesday, where they will release dashcam and helicopter footage of the deadly crash.
Mario Bonilla 15/Keondrick Lang 15/Malachi Daniels 16
Looted a unlocked Maserati @ 3.30AM in Florida, this is how it endedGuess they ‘loot no more’~ pic.twitter.com/2N09kkLlPU
— 🙏🏻 EdoIsHip 🙏🏻 (@HipIsEdo) October 2, 2022
Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said on Sunday that deputies in a helicopter had spotted the teens steal the Maserati at around 3.20am as they were passing over the area on their way to bring another suspect into custody.
The deputies reported that Lang was using his shirt to pull door handles on cars parked in St Petersburg, so as not to leave any fingerprints, when he discovered that a Maserati was left unlocked on a driveway.
After he opened the car door, authorities say, Lang saw that the keys were still inside, and he and his friends jumped into the car before eventually losing control of the vehicle as they took off without headlights.
‘This is what happens when you’re an inexperienced driver at 3:30 in the morning driving 80 miles an hour and you lose it,’ Gualtieri said during a Sunday press conference. ‘And unfortunately one has lost his life, the other one looks like is going to lose his life and the other has some pretty serious injuries.’
None of teens had a driver’s license, the official said.
‘We talk about this all the time,’ Gualtieri continued. ‘People really need to lock their car doors, and don’t leave your keys in the car, but they do.
‘And when these kids are out in the middle of the night, and they’re stealing and breaking into cars, that’s what they’re looking for.’
Deputies in the air upon seeing the boys making their way into the vehicle, contacted their counterparts on the ground, who tried to stop the teens before they got away.
But Lang had already taken off, with ground units following the car and turning on their emergency lights.
The teen then apparently assumed the deputies were going to chase him, and took off at 80mph with no headlights on.
Unbeknownst to Lang, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office has a policy not to engage in chases on the roadway, and they were then pursued by the helicopter, which kept track of their movements from the air.
Deputies in the copter then watched as Lang lost control of the vehicle, drove over a curb, collided with the side of a two-business building along 62nd Avenue, and flipped the luxury car.
‘These are young kids, they’re inexperienced drivers, no drivers’ licenses, driving 3.30 in the morning [at] 80mph,’ Gualtieri explained.
He said responding officers immediately rendered aid to the suspects, but Bonilla was pronounced dead at the scene.
Daniels, who was transported to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries, also may not survive, Gualtieri announced at his news conference.
And Lang was transported also to the hospital with critical injuries, but is expected to survive.
The car owner, meanwhile, has been notified about the crash.
The three teens had been stopped by deputies in Kenneth City on September 11 after they were found to be walking through a residential neighborhood, dressed in all black, with their faces covered, during morning early hours, before dawn, the sheriff said.
At the time, the children’s parents were called and the teens were returned home according to FOX 13.
‘These kids were on that bad path,’ Gualtieri told reporters.
The official said the parents had believed their children to be in bed at the time of the crash.
‘One of the kids shared a room with a younger sibling, and from what I understand, from the deputies talking to the parents this morning, is that the younger sibling didn’t even know he left,’ Gualtieri said.
The parents had been trying to correct their sons’ behaviors, he noted, with one even recently transferring their boy to a nearby school for a fresh start.
‘You gotta feel for these parents because the know the issues you got with 15, 16 year old kids. They’re trying to do something about it, trying to be aware of it, and the kid sneaks out.
‘Sometimes bad things are going to happen.’
