MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. — A West Palm Beach man who died in a high-speed pursuit that lasted for 16 miles on Sunday was identified Tuesday by the Martin County sheriff as a "frequent flyer" who had multiple previous arrests.
Sheriff John Budensiek said the suspect, Walter Turner II, 43, of West Palm Beach, was a "bad guy," but that it is still unclear what prompted him to lead law enforcement on the dangerous chase through two counties.
WATCH BELOW: Sheriff IDs 'frequent flyer' suspect who caused 16-mile chase, fatal crash
WPTV reported on Monday that the suspect who caused the three-vehicle wreck on U.S. Highway 1 was a 43-year-old man from West Palm Beach, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
The pursuit on the highway began in Riviera Beach and ended in a fiery crash near Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Martin County.
Investigators said the West Palm Beach man was in a Ford Escape SUV traveling at speeds of up to 100 mph before crashing into a BMW and a Land Rover near the state park. Turner was ejected from the vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene.
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Budensiek said Tuesday that Turner has been arrested multiple times, including battering his mother. The sheriff said Turner was driving his mother's Ford Escape at the time of the pursuit, but it was not reported stolen.
"(Turner's) been arrested ... at least 10 times starting back in 2001," Budensiek said.
The sheriff described some of those arrests as "minor" but others as more serious, such as aggravated assault with a firearm. Then, in 2025, the sheriff said Turner's mother reported that he had battered her.
"He was arrested two times in 2025 for battery on his mom and then again for aggravated battery on his mom," Budensiek said.
Turner's mother said her son had been dealing with emotional distress since his father died recently. He also had stopped using his medication, Budensiek said, and she had tried to get her son "Baker Acted," but that didn't happen.
According to Budensiek, Turner's mother said her son had been acting "extremely erratic" leading up to Sunday's 16-mile pursuit.
The sheriff said it's still unclear if Turner was under the influence at the time of the pursuit and why he was driving erratically.
"Was he drunk? Was he high? Was he mentally ill? Was he trying to kill himself? We just don't know. We have to wait on the toxicology report, which will probably take another couple of weeks," Budensiek said.
A 39-year-old woman, a 6-year-old and a 3-year-old, all from Brookhaven, Georgia, were inside the BMW. A 63-year-old woman from Jupiter was driving the Land Rover, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
Budensiek said Sunday all four victims are expected to survive.
Sheriff Defends Actions of Law Enforcement
On Tuesday, the sheriff defended the actions of police and deputies during the 16-mile pursuit.
"Law enforcement has a duty to protect life and property, and as a general rule, we do risk-reward," Budensiek said. "If a car chase is worth what we're going to catch, meaning normally an extremely violent fleeing felon, we stick with it. But sometimes, in a car chase, we don't know what we have, but you know you have a guy driving the wrong way up the road, and we have a duty to stop that person, whatever that looks like, so that is not a scenario where anybody would just say let them go, we're going to stop chasing them, and then just hope that it ends well. The public expects us to stop that person," Budensiek said.
The sheriff defended the actions of Jupiter police officers, who attempted to stop Turner.
"We saw him driving the wrong way up the road. We know they're going to kill somebody, and they did. He killed himself, so they expect us to get involved. So those that are throwing stones at the Jupiter Police Department for chasing him completely out of line in this one. They did their job. They did what they were supposed to do. Now, how could they stop them? I've read that one. How could they stop them? Why didn't they stop them before they got to Martin County? It's extremely dangerous to put patrol cars on the wrong side of the road and try to do a PIT maneuver or run them off the road, so they were trying to be calculated and keep the public safe, which was almost impossible in this scenario, but I'm defending them. I thought they did the right thing," Budensiek said.
During the pursuit, Jupiter police officers were about to successfully deflate one of the vehicle's tires on a bridge.
"They got one tire, but unfortunately, the vehicle he was driving, he was able to run at high speeds up until the point he crashed," Budensiek said. "This was a quickly unfolding event that took place."
Some members of the public suggested that the drawbridge should have been raised to stop Turner, but Budensiek rebuked those notions.
"If time were our friend, yeah, I think that would have been a phenomenal fix. But again, this was a rapidly evolving event," the sheriff said.
The Florida Highway Patrol is leading the investigation.
