Palm Coast Times

BRIAN RUSSELL FOR PRESIDENT issued the following announcement on July 22.

Part of I-95 in St. Johns County was shut down late Wednesday after law enforcement stopped a fleeing suspect from South Florida, and he died after a self-inflicted gunshot, the Sheriff’s Office said.

A police chase trying to stop a “violent fleeing felon” from Palm Beach County ended in violence on Interstate 95 near St. Augustine, according to the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office.

And the suspect, who died at Orange Park Medical Center later Wednesday, may be connected to a double homicide near the South Florida community of Lantana, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.

Deputies learned late Wednesday of a vehicle traveling north on I-95, the driver flagged as a violent fleeing felon from an incident in South Florida, St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Chuck Mulligan said.

St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office deputies tried to stop the vehicle, but the driver refused, so stop sticks were deployed to flatten tires and end the pursuit, Mulligan said.

“The vehicle reportedly crashed and the suspect apparently sustained a self inflicted gunshot wound,” Mulligan said.

The unnamed suspect was treated for a self-inflicted gunshot wound after crashing into a median guardrail, Mulligan said. He was airlifted to Orange Park, where he later died, the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office said.

Interstate 95 northbound just north of Florida 207 was shut down as multiple agencies investigated the incident, the Sheriff’s Office said. The interstate has since reopened, according to the Florida Department of Transportation.

Since then, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office has confirmed that it is investigating whether the chase and crash are connected to a double homicide Wednesday morning near Lantana, a sheriff’s spokeswoman told the Palm Beach Post.

Two women were found dead in a home on the 7900 block of Overlook Road at about 9 a.m. Wednesday, Palm Beach officials said. Neighbors reported hearing gunfire and screaming from the home near the Hypoluxo Scrub Natural Area, the Palm Beach Post reported.

Mulligan did not identify the suspect until next of kin are notified. But he confirmed that investigators from Palm Beach County and other agencies were joining the investigation.

Original source here.