Sheriff: 19-year-old ‘intentionally struck’ Bradenton teen with his car after fight
The Parrish man charged with running over and killing a 17-year-old earlier this month may have done so intentionally after the two met up for a fight, the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office said.
Josh Oviedo, 19, was arrested on Sept. 9 after detectives say he ran over a teen with his black and white Dodge Charger following an argument. Deputies were called to a Bradenton neighborhood in the 4600 block of Fourth Avenue Drive East just after 5 p.m. that Saturday, where the 17-year-old male was pronounced dead at the scene.
The sheriff’s office is withholding his name, citing Florida’s Marsy’s Law for victims of crimes.
But this wasn’t the first interaction between the two, the sheriff’s office told the Bradenton Herald on Tuesday.
Oviedo and the teen knew each other before Sept. 9 and “had not been getting along for some time” as part of an “ongoing dispute” said Randy Warren, public information officer for the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office.
“They had a history of not getting along and they went there with the intention that there was going to be a fight that day,” said Warren. “They were going to try and settle their differences.”
Detectives say there was a brief argument between the 17-year-old and Oviedo that afternoon. After the argument, a probable cause affidavit says Oviedo’s Charger appeared to be leaving westbound on Fourth Avenue Drive East when the 17-year-old and several of his friends chased the car on foot.
That’s when witnesses say “the driver suddenly turned the Dodge Charger around, accelerated toward the victim and intentionally struck the victim, killing him instantly,” according to an affidavit.
Oviedo told detectives that he realized the street was a dead end and that’s why he decided to turn his car around.
He also said that the teen was standing in the middle of the road with a baseball bat and that he believed he was going to strike his car with the weapon.
Room for driver to turn
But Warren said witnesses and evidence collected from the scene determined that “he had ample opportunity to turn the car left to avoid the victim.”
“There was room for him to move out of the way but he continued to drive directly at the victim and struck him,” said Warren.
The sheriff’s office says that Oviedo confirmed he was driving the black and white Dodge Charger at the time of the accident and that he struck the teen with his car.
Oviedo, who had a passenger in his car, fled the scene and hid behind a shopping plaza, where a Manatee County Sheriff’s Office news release said he was arrested shortly afterwards.
Detectives say Oviedo told them he parked behind the nearby business to hide from the teen’s friends while his passenger called 911. The passenger later confirmed this in an interview with the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office.
The passenger also provided the sheriff’s office with video and audio captured on his cellphone that showed that after Oviedo turned the car around, he accelerated toward the teen and “intentionally struck him with his vehicle, which resulted in the victim’s death,” according to the affidavit.
Oviedo was charged with first-degree murder with a deadly weapon and was booked into the Manatee County Jail on Sept. 9, where he remains in custody without bond, according to court records and the sheriff’s office website.
The Bradenton Herald reached out to Oviedo’s attorney but had not heard back by deadline.
This story was originally published September 27, 2023 at 2:27 PM.
