ROCKLEDGE, Fla. — A plumber on a call is still in the hospital, and a man is behind bars after a bizarre crash and foot chase in Rockledge Thursday morning.

  • Driver of car ran off but was found about an hour later
  • Plumber suffered serious injuries
  • Get more Brevard County coverage 

The plumber had arrived just after 8 a.m. at a home on Jamestown Drive in Rockledge when police say the car came barreling down the road.

Gerald Donofrio had called the plumber from Coggin Plumbing for a quick job, working on his washer and dryer.

Donofrio had no way of knowing the havoc that would happen right outside.

"I hear a loud bang, I hear someone scream," he said.

Police say a car came barrelling down the road.

The plumber was next to his van. The speeding car struck him, then the van, a violent collision that sent the vehicle sideways into the street. The man was pinned.

"I run outside, and that's when I noticed the individual who crashed into him was already getting out of his car and sprinting down the road," Donofrio said. "I yelled 'hey' so hopefully he would stop, and he kept sprinting off."

A neighbor also heard the wreck, came outside, and heard the plumber screaming in the street.

"I ran over to see if I could do anything, we called 911, and the best I could do was get down and try to comfort the man," George Avis said. "(I) just held his hand, and he was afraid he was going to die."

Rockledge Police and Brevard County Sheriff's deputies set up a perimeter around the neighborhood.

After an hour on the run, the suspected car driver, 42-year-old Mark Wells, was found hiding in a yard. 

"It's just a really horrible thing to do," said Assistant Chief Donna Seyferth of Rockledge Police Department. "How awful to leave that guy sitting there, what if somebody out here had not seen it?"

"I think that's a brand new low," said Donofrio. "That people would just hit somebody and leave them for dead."

The plumber, whose name has not been released, was flown to a hospital with serious injuries.