MANATEE — The Florida Highway Patrol continues to investigate the death of a motorcyclist in a crash early Friday morning. FHP reports say that just after midnight that Michael B. Boyd, 47, of Ona, in Hardee County, was thrown from his 2007 Honda motorcycle after being rear-ended by a driver in a 2004 Nissan on State Road 64, just west of Dam Road.
The crash threw Boyd from his bike, and emergency personnel airlifted him to Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg, where Boyd was pronounced dead at 1:22 a.m., the FHP said.
Troopers took blood from the 21-year-old driver of the Nissan, a Lakewood Ranch resident, for a toxicology test, the FHP report said. Neither the driver nor a 20-year-old passenger was hurt.
Two injured in shooting
MANATEE — Two men were hospitalized after a gunman jumped out from behind bushes near their house and shot them, according to a Manatee County Sheriff’s Office report.
At 10:42 a.m. Thursday, the victims, 19 and 18, were standing with a woman in front of their home in the 1200 block of 57th Avenue East, when a man ran out from behind bushes and opened fire on them.
The woman ducked and was uninjured, but bullets tore into one man’s legs, while the other man suffered wounds to his upper body.
Both men were airlifted to Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg with non-life-threatening injuries.
The gunman escaped and a description was not provided.
Sheriff’s spokesman Dave Bristow said a motive for the shooting is unknown.
Anyone with information can call the sheriff’s office at 747-3011, or Crimestoppers at (866) 634-TIPS.
— Robert Napper
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