An illegally tinted window sparked a chase Tuesday afternoon which claimed the life of a 55-year-old woman in a crash on State Road 44 in Wildwood.
A Wildwood police officer had been on patrol at 1:30 p.m. on Jackson Street when he spotted a white BMW. That BMW was known to the police officer and others in law enforcement as one that had run from them in the past, according to an arrest report from the Wildwood Police Department.
When the driver realized the patrol car was behind him, the BMW sped away.
“The traffic was minimal to none as the vehicle reached speeds of 80 MPH. I continued to follow constantly updating dispatch as to our direction of travel and speeds, as well as traffic conditions which were still light to none,” the police officer wrote in his subsequent report.
The BMW then turned left onto County Road 219, heading southbound at which time it began to smoke.
“Knowing that we were approaching SR 44 I began to disengage and decrease my vehicle speed letting the vehicle gain distance. I then lost sight of the suspect vehicle for a short time,” the officer wrote.
After the officer disengaged, the BMW entered westbound State Road 44 “at a speed which was impossible to successfully perform the merge causing an accident,” the report said.
The BMW struck a Honda SUV driven by Laura Lee Price, 55, of Inverness. She died at the scene of the accident.
The BMW then sideswiped a 2016 Chevy truck driven by 52-year-old Michael L. Simon of Grand Island and collided with a 2014 Mack tractor trailer driven by Eugene Randolph Jr., 53, of Jacksonville. The BMW became wedged underneath the trailer.
Simon suffered minor injuries while Randolph escaped injury.
Following the crash, one occupant of the BMW was apprehended as he attempted to flee on foot.
He has been identified as Anthony Nepoleon Brown, 27, of Ocala, and has been charged with felony possession of a firearm by a convicted felon after an AK-47 rifle was found in the BMW after the crash.
Video has also confirmed Brown was the driver of the BMW. In addition to the weapons charge filed by the Wildwood Police Department, FHP has charged Brown with leaving the scene of a crash involving a death, providing false information regarding a fatal traffic crash, felony murder, driving while license revoked, as well as fleeing and eluding.
He has been booked at the Sumter County Detention Center.
Another man who had been in the BMW fled the scene of the crash on foot. He remains at large.
