A woman has been arrested in a 2022 hit-and-run crash that killed a man near UF Health-The Villages Hospital.
Edward William Sivak, 52, of Summerfield, was killed on Aug. 1, 2022 when he was crossing U.S. Hwy. 27/441 and was hit by a car that fled the scene. Sivak, who was remembered as a Christian, a carpenter and the family comedian, was pronounced dead at the scene. His body was covered by a white sheet on the grim day of the investigation, which lasted several hours.
This past week, 21-year-old Ashanti Janayia Slater of Gulfport, Miss. was arrested on a warrant charging her with felony hit and run in connection with Sivak’s death.
On the day of the crash, Slater had been staying at the Holiday Inn Express at The Villages. She had been at the wheel of a silver 2016 Buick Verano with Mississippi license plates when she hit Sivak on U.S. Hwy. 27/441 about 20 feet north of Bella Cruz Drive. She later told the Florida Highway Patrol that she was “unaware” that her vehicle struck a pedestrian.
Instead of stopping, she went to the Walmart at Summerfield and picked up her boyfriend, who had been staying with her at the Holiday Inn Express. They drove back to the crash scene “and saw a body on the ground,” according to a charging document on file in Sumter County Court.
She returned to the Holiday Inn Express and she called her mother, who told her to return to the scene of the accident.
When Slater returned to the scene 30 minutes after the accident, FHP took a blood sample from the front of her Buick. It was sent for testing to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. When the results came back, a warrant was issued for her arrest.
The boyfriend was interviewed by investigators and he said that when they drove back to the accident scene, Slater “knew it was a person.”
Sivak, a native of New Jersey, left behind a daughter, grandson, two brothers and his mother. In his youth, he built a church playground in pursuit of his Eagle Scout rank.
