Gainesville man crashes stolen car into Ridge building

Residents in one building at The Ridge at Gainesville are without power after a Gainesville man crashed a stolen car into the apartment complex near Butler Plaza, Gainesville Police said.

Ahmadric Ty’ree Stone, 19, was driving a stolen black BMW SUV south on Southwest 38th Terrace when he sped up and hit the side of Robert Bryce Haines’ 2016 Nissan Sentra, Haines said. The 23-year-old was turning left into the apartment complex, located at 3718 SW 24th Ave., at about 5 p.m.

After being hit, Haines said he saw Stone crash into the building before blacking out. The crash left Haines with head and shoulder injuries. Haines was taken to UF Health Shands Hospital for his injuries but was later released.

“I came back to my senses, and I realized we were hit,” the Gainesville resident said. “I don’t know why he was in such a rush.”

After crashing into the side of an apartment building, Stone got out of the car and ran through the apartment complex, GPD Lt. Audrey Mazzuca said.

Mazzuca said multiple The Ridge residents called police to give updates on Stone’s whereabouts.

“This was awesome cooperation between citizens and law enforcement,” she said. “We had multiple citizens calling in. ‘He’s here, he’s there, he’s rolling over vehicles.’ We had officers who knew the area, who were in the right places at the right time.”

Jeffrey Haydu, a UF biology junior, was leaving his apartment to go to Publix when Stone ran into his garage and asked for help.

“He was saying ‘You got to help me, you got to help me. Someone’s trying to hurt me,’” Haydu said. “I told him I’d call the cops, and he said not to. I knew something was wrong.”

Haydu, 20, said Stone then got into the backseat of his car and crawled over the center console into the driver’s seat. He tried backing out of the garage but the driver’s door hit the garage door railing and broke halfway off the car.

Stone jumped out of the passenger door window and ran off, with police following. Haydu called police but officers only responded to his apartment, which is about 500 feet from the building Stone crashed into, after they detained Stone. This was about 15 to 20 minutes after the attempted carjacking. Haydu said the scene in his garage was fast.

“It was like out of a movie,” he said.

Officers eventually stopped Stone about a mile from the apartment complex at the Outback Steakhouse on Butler Plaza, located at 3760 SW Archer Road.

Stone was taken to UF Health Shands Hospital for medical issues he complained of after running. GPD later charged him with unarmed carjacking, hindering communication with police and resisting arrest without violence, Mazzuca said. The car Stone crashed into was reported stolen to Alachua County Sheriff’s Office. Mazzuca said she did not know when the car was stolen or where it was stolen from.

Stone was taken to the Alachua County Jail on Sunday morning and is being held without bond, pending a first appearance today.

Stone also hit the building’s electrical box, knocking it over and onto the ground, shutting off power to all of the apartments in that building. Katherine Gonzalez, a UF biochemistry and political science sophomore, woke up her roommate, Maria Moriyon, a UF veterinary graduate student, at about 7 p.m. when she came home and the power was off. Gonzalez and Moriyon were told by The Ridge management they needed to evacuate for two weeks for repairs and inspections.

Clutching flashlights in their hands Saturday night, Gonzalez and Moriyon hurried to gather their belongings to move to another building. Moriyon, who has an exam today, is worried about moving to a new place.

The apartment management is providing empty apartments in the community to residents who were evacuated, Gonzalez said.

“They are really being nice about it considering that this was so random,” Gonzalez said.

Contact Meryl Kornfield at mkornfield@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter at @merylkornfield.