Crime spree: Suspect injures elderly woman on golf cart, vandalizes church, plants tree

Hit-and-run, vandalism suspect arrested

Catherine Hawley reports

BRADENTON, Fla. - Deputies arrested a man they say went on a bizarre crime spree in Manatee County Tuesday.

The sheriff's office says deputies caught Daniel Kersey vandalizing a local church, and three days earlier he was involved in a hit-and-run crash that sent a woman to the hospital.

Gloria Slowiak has been in the hospital since Dec. 27. Florida Highway Patrol troopers say Kersey was driving a car that plowed into the 80-year-old while she was sitting in her golf cart.

FOX 13 News spoke with Gloria over the phone.

"I just got my mail out of the mailbox and I threw it on the side of the seat,” she said. “And then I turned around and this car came flying down the street, and then boom, I got hit."

Deputies say Daniel Kersey hit a woman who was driving a golf cart, fled the scene, and later ditched the car.

It happened near her Bradenton home in Golf Lakes Mobile Home Park. Her family, including her son and grandchildren, are relieved the suspect is off the streets.

"Relieved, absolutely relieved, now we can focus 100% on her care and rehabilitation," said Gloria's son, John Slowiak.

Gloria has already had two surgeries to repair her shattered leg; she has cuts on her head and needed skin grafts on her elbows from the violent crash.

After slamming into the elderly woman, troopers say Kersey ditched his car and took off.

“He's a bad person, he doesn’t have no respect for the law no respect for humanity, period," said John.

Three days after leaving Gloria for dead on the side of the road, Kersey was caught by deputies at Trinity Baptist Church. They say he vandalized the property, but also planted a tree.

Deputies say Kersey planted this once-potted tree outside the church.

"It was very bizarre, it seemed like he was under the influence of something, just because the way he was acting," said Pastor Steve Meyer.

Security cameras inside the house of worship show Kersey was on the property for about eight hours. During that time, the 32-year-old caused a lot of damage, pulling the kitchen sink off the wall, destroying tiles, breaking doors, and ripping up electrical outlets.

A sink was knocked over inside the church.

"It could be anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000 worth of damage," Meyer said.

Kersey claimed he was at the church to do improvement work and that a man was telling him what to do. is being charged for the vandalism as well as the hit-and-run.