A day after a Florida Highway Patrol trooper and a truck driver were killed during a pursuit on Interstate 95 in St. Lucie County, the man who led the trooper on the pursuit has been arrested in the two deaths.
The suspect in Friday’s chase, Michael Anthony Addison, 30, is from Broward County. He is facing charges of vehicular homicide, felony homicide, driving without a license causing death, aggravated fleeing and eluding with death, among others, the Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles said in a statement Saturday afternoon.
A St. Lucie County deputy initially tried to stop the suspect early Friday because he was driving at twice the speed limit, but the deputy called it off several minutes later. Trooper Zachary Fink, 26, then resumed the pursuit, trying to stop the driver out of concern he was endangering others, Col. Gary Howze, who heads the Florida Highway Patrol, said.
The suspect made an abrupt U-turn into the opposite direction of traffic on I-95, and Fink followed, turning into the path of a tractor-trailer. The truck’s driver and Fink both died.
The news release did not provide further information about the incident or FHP’s ongoing investigation. Addison was booked into the St. Lucie County jail shortly before 9:30 p.m. Friday, according to the jail’s inmate log.
Addison has been arrested on felony charges multiple times in Broward County between 2012 and 2021, court records show. He was arrested on burglary- and theft-related charges when he was 18 years old and the judge withheld adjudication. He was sentenced to three years of probation.
He was arrested several times in 2020 on fraud-related charges and was placed on probation that was ultimately revoked, court records show. He spent about a year in jail.
In 2021, Addison was arrested on a third-degree grand theft charge, court records show, and that charge was later dropped. Later that year, he was arrested on charges of domestic battery by strangulation for allegedly grabbing his ex-girlfriend by the neck, according to arrest paperwork. Prosecutors declined to bring that case as well.
He was then pulled over by Coconut Creek Police in November 2022 for failing to stop at a red light and was found to be driving without a valid license, according to court records.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
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