Plant City officers search for wanted man in deadly hit-and-run crash

Plant City police officers are looking for a man they say was involved in a fatal hit-and-run Friday morning. The suspect is already wanted on a separate felony warrant. 

Detectives say Armando Lopez was walking to work at Commercial Concrete Products on Sammonds Road when he was hit.

“It was sad that he was right at that corner,“ his boss, John Houston told FOX 13.

Lopez was just feet away from the entrance to the business when he was killed.

Before Lopez was hit, the suspect had been spotted by an officer at the Plantation at Walden Lakes apartment complex.

When the officer approached the wanted man, Emmanuel Sandoval, 30, of Plant City, Sandoval took off, jumping into the passenger side of a car.

Police followed, using a stop stick to try and stop the fleeing car. 

When that didn't work, they called off the pursuit.

A police spokesman says by the time the car got to Sammonds Road, it was driving recklessly, and ran down Lopez.

When officers got to the crash, they saw three suspects running from the scene.

Police say the man in the driver's seat was Daniel Castro, 26, of Plant City. Another passenger, Sierra Vickery, 25, were apprehended.

Officers are still searching for Sandoval.

Castro has been charged with vehicular homicide, leaving the scene of a fatality crash, no valid driver's license involving a fatality, leaving the scene of a crash involving a fatality, aggravated fleeing to elude, and aggravated assault on law enforcement with a deadly weapon (motor vehicle). 

The Vickery was arrested on a warrant unrelated to this incident. 

Sandoval has outstanding warrants for grand theft, driving while license suspended, and resisting an officer without violence, as well as several felony charges pending from this incident.