A traffic stop over malfunctioning brake lights escalated into a fleeing Kia, a deputy partially inside the car, and a collision with a school bus carrying 41 middle school students, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies stopped a silver Kia Forte at about 4:36 p.m. Sept. 23 on West Hillsborough Avenue, just west of North Dale Mabry Highway. Body-camera footage released by HCSO shows a deputy telling the driver that both brake lights were out.
The driver, later identified as 54-year-old Tonnetta Evans, told the deputy she had recently replaced a bulb and needed to “wiggle it” to make it work. When asked for identification, she handed the deputy an ID bearing the first name Kirsten.
HCSO said deputies subsequently developed probable cause to search the Kia and attempted to remove Evans from the vehicle.
The Stop Changes Quickly
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The footage shows deputies asking Evans to get out of the Kia. She does not comply.
As a deputy opens the driver’s door, Evans puts the Kia in drive and begins moving with the deputy partially inside, HCSO said.
Moments later, Evans struck a school bus carrying 41 students from Pierce Middle School, along with the bus driver and a bus aide. HCSO said the collision happened before a pursuit could be initiated based on the aggravated battery.
No students were injured. The bus sustained minor damage, and the students were transferred to another bus and taken home.
Deputies eventually took Evans into custody near the Howard Avenue and Armenia Avenue ramp to southbound Interstate 275.
What Was Inside the Kia
HCSO said deputies recovered what the agency described as a pipe bomb or explosive device, brass knuckles, an electric weapon, a bandolier of shotgun shells, identification and credit cards belonging to other people, $1,100 in counterfeit $100 bills, coins, methamphetamine, marijuana and prescription pills.
The sheriff’s office also released an X-ray image of the cylindrical object it described as an explosive device. The image shows numerous small dense objects inside the cylinder.
HCSO also said the Kia had been reported stolen in Kentucky in 2022.
Photographs released by the agency show multiple license plates among the recovered property. Evans was charged with attaching a tag not assigned.
More Than a Dozen Charges
HCSO said Evans was charged with aggravated battery on a law-enforcement officer with a deadly weapon, armed possession of methamphetamine, aggravated fleeing to elude, battery on a law-enforcement officer, felon in possession of ammunition, and felon in possession of an electric weapon or device.
She also faces charges of giving a false name to a law-enforcement officer, possession of less than 20 grams of cannabis, possession of drug paraphernalia, three counts of possession of a controlled substance without a prescription, unlawful possession of the personal identification of another involving five or more, tampering with physical evidence, attaching a tag not assigned, and leaving the scene of a crash involving a school bus.
Evans was also arrested on a Kentucky failure-to-appear warrant for possession of methamphetamine and theft of identity of another without consent, according to HCSO.
The sheriff’s office said Evans is a three-time Indiana State Prison releasee, a nine-time convicted felon in Indiana, and a two-time convicted felon in Kentucky. HCSO said her criminal history in the two states includes escape, burglary, burglary of a vehicle, identity theft, and narcotics offenses.
All parties are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.