TAMPA, Fla. — Four people were killed and 11 more were injured after a police pursuit of a speeding driver ended early Saturday with a crash in Ybor City, Tampa police reported.

The driver slammed into the front of Bradley’s on 7th, a popular LGBTQ+ nightclub just east of 15th Street on busy Seventh Avenue.

Three people died there. A fourth died later at a hospital. A fifth person remained in critical condition late Saturday morning, police said. Eight more were being treated for less severe injuries.

“They were out in Ybor, having a good time, expecting to go home safely,” Tampa police Chief Lee Bercaw said in an early-morning news conference at the scene. “And a careless, reckless driver takes everybody’s lives in his hands.”

Tampa police arrested Silas Sampson, a 22-year-old Dade City man who police said was the driver.

He was jailed Saturday on charges of fleeing from police and vehicular homicide.

Sampson does not have a criminal record in Hillsborough County. But in September, the Florida Highway Patrol cited him for driving 99 mph on Interstate 75, where the speed limit is 70.

Bercaw said the pursuit began about 12:30 a.m. when a Tampa police helicopter spotted two cars racing in the area of Hanna and North Nebraska avenues in Seminole Heights. The cars sped west before one turned south onto Interstate 275, while the other headed elsewhere, Bercaw said.

The police helicopter tracked the car as it headed south into downtown Tampa, the chief said.

A news release stated the car left the interstate at Doyle Carlton Drive, a main exit into downtown and the Riverwalk area, which is under construction.

Tampa police and the Florida Highway Patrol spotted the car minutes later near North Nebraska and Palm avenues, just outside Ybor City, Bercaw said.

Two Highway Patrol troopers tried to stop the car, the chief said. The driver sped away from them.

The troopers chased and tried to stop the car using what’s known as a precision immobilization technique, or PIT maneuver. It is a common police pursuit method that involves having a patrol car strike the rear end of a fleeing vehicle to spin it off the road.

Sgt. Steve Gaskins, a spokesperson for the Highway Patrol in Tampa, said the PIT maneuver was unsuccessful. Troopers then backed off, Gaskins said.

“After that, unfortunately, this vehicle went at a high rate of speed down Seventh Avenue,” Bercaw said. “And tragically, just east of 15th Street, (it) hit over a dozen people.”

The dead and injured were all adults, the chief said. Police did not release their names.

Photos from the scene showed the car, a silver Toyota sedan, damaged and lodged inside the club’s entryway. Videos on social media showed hundreds of late-night club patrons running east along Seventh Avenue after the car plowed into the building.

The highway patrol was leading the traffic homicide investigation.

Police blocked all of Seventh Avenue while investigators probed the crash scene. The area reopened to traffic a little after 9:30 a.m.

Local LGBTQ+ organizations mourned the tragedy in statements issued Saturday morning.

A statement from St. Pete Pride called Bradley’s a spot where many “have shared laughter, love and unforgettable memories.” The Big Gay Radio Show, whose co-host Esmé Russell was at Bradley’s and saw the collision, wrote in a statement that the tragedy “struck at the heart of Tampa’s LGBTQ+ community.”

Outside Bradley’s, tables and chairs remained strewn, a broken fan dangled from the ceiling and shattered glass lay streaked with blood.

Howard Hopkins, 55, waited Saturday morning to retrieve his car from the taped-off area.

Last night, Hopkins said he went to get pizza from New York, New York, next to Bradley’s, when he saw a car jump the curb.

“It was awful,” he said. “Tables were flying, chairs were flying, people were flying.”

He said he saw someone try in vain to resuscitate one of the injured.

“I’m praying for the victims’ families,” he said. “They just came out for a fun night, they didn’t expect it to end like this.”

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(Times staff writers Divya Kumar, Nina Moske and Anthony Nicotera contributed to this report.)

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