MARTIN COUNTY — Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek May 26 identified a man who crashed and died after investigators said he drove the wrong way on U.S. 1 from Riviera Beach north to southern Martin County – about 16 miles – as 43-year-old Walter Turner II.
The May 24 crash in Hobe Sound in the area of Jonathan Dickinson State Park happened after investigators said Turner tried to run over a Jupiter police officer and was involved in a number of minor crashes, according to Budensiek and the Florida Highway Patrol.
In Martin County, Turner ultimately crashed with two southbound vehicles, a 2020 Land Rover sport utility vehicle driven by a 63-year-old Jupiter woman, and a 2017 BMW sport utility vehicle driven by a 39-year-old woman, with children ages 6 and 3 as passengers. The BMW occupants all are from Georgia, according to the FHP.
U.S. Border Patrol agents driving south in the Riviera Beach area encountered Turner driving at them, Budensiek said.
“The first indication we have during this event was the Border Patrol called in saying that they almost got hit by a wrong-way driver,” Budensiek said.
The agents made a U-turn and tried to follow Turner in the northbound lanes, as other law enforcement agencies were notified. Police in Juno Beach and Jupiter were involved.
At one point, Budensiek said, Jupiter Police deployed tire deflation devices, which deflated one tire of the wrong-way vehicle, identified by FHP as a Ford Escape sport utility vehicle.
“The suspect tried to run one of their officers over and then continued northbound until he entered Martin County and eventually struck two of our innocent civilians that were driving southbound, struck them head on,” Budensiek has said.
Budensiek said Turner has a number of arrests since 2001, describing him as a “frequent flyer” in the Palm Beach County area.
Some crimes, Budensiek said, were minor, though it appears he has a cultivation of marijuana charge.
“During that cultivation of the marijuana, the police came to his house and he ended up burning his house down if I read some of those reports correctly,” Budensiek said.
Budensiek said Turner also was arrested in 2025 on charges related to alleged violence against his mother.
“His mother, who the car ended up being registered to, his mother had reported at least two times that he had battered her,” Budensiek said.
Budensiek said Turner’s mother reported “he had fallen apart since his father had died in 2025 or around that time and had tried to get him Baker Acted, which did not take place.”
Florida’s Baker Act allows people who appear to be a harm to themselves or others to be committed involuntarily for a mental health evaluation.
The mother reported he’d been off his medication, and “acting extremely erratic.”
“What we still don’t know is, was he drunk? Was he high? Was he mentally ill?” Budensiek said. “Was he trying to kill himself? We just don’t know.”
He said toxicology results to help determine what was in his system are weeks away.
Budensiek said a small plastic bag of a white powdery substance was found in Turner’s pocket at the medical examiner’s office.
“We’re waiting to see what that was,” he said. “This is really a bizarre chain of events for us.”
Will Greenlee is a breaking news reporter for TCPalm. Follow Will on X @OffTheBeatTweet or reach him by phone at 772-267-7926. E-mail him at will.greenlee@tcpalm.com.
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Sheriff identifies man dead in wrong-way crash in Florida
Reporting by Will Greenlee, Treasure Coast Newspapers / Treasure Coast Newspapers
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