Updated: Driver Found Dead After Truck Crashes Into Home

When New Port Richey police officers arrived at a home on Greenwood Street after a pickup truck smashed into the building early Friday, they first thought the driver had died from injuries sustained in the crash.

Then they discovered the man, Dallas Hatfield, had suffered an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, according to a news release from police. A gun was located in the passenger compartment of the 2005 GMC truck he had driven.

Jeff Dal Pezzo and wife Melissa Krpal were in bed at the home, at 5016 Greenwood St., when the crash occurred at 4:20 a.m. Dal Pezzo went to the hospital with back pain, and Krpal sustained cuts on her legs. Their bed was pushed against a wall by the truck, and their basset hound was pinned. Neither knows Hatfield, who was the lone occupant of the truck.

The case was later assigned to a detective, and the driver’s body was  transported to the Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner's Office.

New port Richey Police Lt. James Steffens told St. Petersburg Times reporter Erin Sullivan that Hatfield shot himself while driving.  The man who lived in the home also spoke to her about the crash.

City building officials later assessed the home. Lisa Fierce, head of New Port Richey's planning and zoning department, said the home was rented by the occupants and that the bedroom was not inhabitable, but the rest of the building could be lived in.

*This article has been corrected.