Gainesville Police is investigating a crash that left a bicyclist dead late Friday night.
Gainesville resident Zachary William House, 44, was crossing the intersection of 2500 NW 13th St. when he was fatally struck by a 2014 black BMW 428i, which witnesses said appeared to be high-speed racing northbound on Northwest 13th Street just prior to the crash, Gainesville Police Spokesperson Officer Ben Tobias wrote in an email.
Emergency medical personnel declared House dead on the scene, Tobias said.
Officers responded to reports of a hit-and-run crash at about 11:08 p.m. Friday, Tobias said. Immediately after the crash, Joshua Cordell Stewart Stephens, who was driving the BMW that struck House, pulled into the nearby Knights Inn hotel parking lot, returned to the crash site on foot and conducted an interview with law enforcement, Tobias said.
Stephens, 20, was released on-site after his interview with officers and may face charges in the future, Tobias said. Tobias added that it’s very rare for arrests to happen on-scene at a crash site.
Many of the details of the crash remain unknown and police are now investigating the crash as a traffic homicide, which can take months to complete, Tobias said.
“Any charges that would be applied are done at the end of the investigation,” Tobias said. “We want to look at every angle.”
