Florida sheriff’s agent killed in crash with wrong-way driver
A sheriff’s homicide investigator was killed in a head-on crash with a wrong-way driver in Brevard County, Florida, while heading to investigate an officer-involved shooting, according to authorities. The other driver also died as both vehicles were engulfed in flames.
The crash happened Saturday night in the northbound lanes of Interstate 95, south of State Road 46 near Mims. Florida Highway Patrol Lieutenant Channing Taylor said in a briefing that dispatchers began receiving calls about a wrong-way driver at approximately 11:01 p.m.
Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey identified the investigator as 55-year-old Kevin Morris. He was responding with other homicide investigators to a shooting involving deputies that had occurred earlier that night in Mims.
Another investigator travelling a short distance ahead of Morris saw the vehicle heading south in the northbound lanes and alerted dispatch. Calls reporting the crash began coming in seconds later.
Authorities said the other driver, a 26-year-old Kissimmee resident, had been travelling north before making a U-turn near a rest area north of the State Road 46 interchange. The vehicle remained in the northbound lanes and continued south against traffic before striking Morris’s vehicle.
The driver had attended a wedding in the county’s beachside area earlier in the day and was returning toward Kissimmee, according to the sheriff.
A trooper was immediately dispatched after the wrong-way driving reports, but the collision happened before the trooper could reach the area.
The Highway Patrol’s statewide investigations and reconstruction team will handle the case. Investigators from outside Brevard County were brought in because local traffic homicide investigators knew agent Morris well.
Investigators are interviewing witnesses and examining roadway evidence to reconstruct the crash. Toxicology testing and an autopsy will help determine whether impairment or a medical event played a role. The reason for the U-turn remains unknown.
Morris previously served with the Palm Bay Police Department before leaving in 2011. Sheriff Ivey said he became involved in church work and returned to law enforcement after his daughter’s decision to attend a police academy renewed his interest in the profession.
He joined the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office in February 2021 and served as a deputy, field training officer, homicide investigator and polygraph examiner.
“Kevin was probably one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet in your life,” Ivey said during Sunday’s briefing. “If you knew Kevin, you loved him.”
The post Florida sheriff’s agent killed in crash with wrong-way driver appeared first on BNO News.
Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
