Authorities identify four victims killed after car crashed into crowd in Tampa

The four victims killed after a car crashed into a crowd in Tampa's Ybor City neighborhood early Saturday have been identified

The four victims killed after a car crashed into a crowd in Tampa's Ybor City neighborhood early Saturday have been identified.

Authorities identified the victims as Christina Maria Richards, 25, Lisa Sherell Johnson, 41, Sherman Jones, 53, and Marlon Anthony Collins, 53, according to a criminal report affidavit from Hillsborough County.

Silas Sampson, 22, struck a crowd on Ybor City's lively 7th Avenue at around 12:47 a.m. while fleeing from an attempted traffic stop by the Florida Highway Patrol, police said. The traffic stop was initiated because Sampson was allegedly driving recklessly and had fled another traffic stop attempted by the Tampa Police Department, according to the affidavit. The Toyota Camry entered the Ybor City neighborhood after an unsuccessful precision immobilization technique (PIT) attempt, per the affidavit. A PIT is a tactic law enforcement deploys to stop a vehicle they are pursuing, often by forcing the car to spin out by striking its rear half.

Sampson was speeding eastbound on East 7th Avenue when he struck another vehicle at an intersection, according to the affidavit.

"The vehicle then traveled onto the sidewalk at the northeast corner of the intersection and struck at least 11 pedestrians and patrons of the Cooper Shaker and New York New York Pizza," a trooper wrote in the affidavit.