Man Fleeing Deputies Charged with Murder for Death of Woman in Collision; Sheriff Staly Vows Full Review of Chase

Stevens Brian Charles, 40, faces a second-degree murder charge, among at least 10 felony charges, in the death of a 71-year-old Ormond Beach woman Tuesday in a head-on crash on an I-95 exit on which Charles was intentionally driving the wrong way, fleeing from Flagler County Sheriff’s deputies. 

Charles, driving a Chevrolet Suburban, ploughed into the unsuspecting woman’s Volkswagen Beetle head-on. He was driving with 38-year-old Joshua Labrent Hansen, who was wanted in Volusia County, where he faced six burglary counts and a count of grand theft stemming from car break-ins and theft in March 2024. 

St. Johns County had reported Rahquez Moore, 23, to be with the other two. He is not in custody. 

Charles and Hansen fled on foot immediately after the crash and were quickly apprehended. One of them was bitten by a police dog. The Volusia County sheriff’s deputies arrested both. 

“The entire situation is a tragedy,” Sheriff Rick Staly said. “No one wants that to happen and all of it could have been avoided had the fleeing vehicle stopped. It had multiple opportunities to stop.”

The sheriff has ordered a top-to-bottom review of the entire incident, the agency’s chase policy, and whether all procedures were followed. The circumstances under which Deputies may engage in motor vehicle apprehensions is restricted and regulated,” the policy states. “Motor vehicle pursuits and apprehension of criminals are necessary law enforcement procedures and are often dictated by the actions of the driver.” 

Pursuits are authorized “in an effort to detain suspects who demonstrate violence or pose an immediate specific continuing threat to public safety” when a set of conditions exist, such as the reasonable belief that the suspects have committed a violent crime (burglary is not among those listed in the policy) or when a supervisor authorizes the pursuit and apprehension “when there is a reasonable belief that pursuing the fleeing vehicle is necessary to prevent the death or serious bodily injury to any person.”

Road deputies and supervisors often end pursuits when they determine that the “danger outweighs the necessity of the vehicle apprehension,” in the policy’s wording. In this case, Charles appears to have made a split-second decision when, veering left from U.S. 1 onto what would have been the on-ramp for the northbound lanes,a semi truck was slowly driving up the ramp, so Charles took the parallel exit ramp. 

“In the moment, things can appear differently, and your perception can appear differently” that what car or other cameras and radio transmissions can reflect, Staly said. “But I’ve ordered a full and complete review of all actions, including our policy of supervisory actions, that may or may not have been done or should have been done. We’re not going to leave a stone unturned. It’s an absolute tragedy that anyone died, just being an innocent driver in an exit ramp from an interstate, and get hit by a dirtbag that’s trying to avoid being arrested, driving the wrong way on an exit ramp.” 

The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office had informed authorities in Flagler County early Tuesday morning that they were on the lookout for three burglary suspects in a gray Suburban. A Flagler deputy responded to the alert at 12:22 p.m. when the Suburban, its windows heavily tinted, was spotted backed in at the CVS on Old Kings Road near Palm Coast Parkway. 

“Multiple marked and unmarked Flagler County Sheriff’s Office patrol vehicles activated their emergency red and blue flashing lights and attempted to block the vehicle in the parking space to prevent them from fleeing,” a sheriff’s arrest report states. “Deputies provided multiple loud, clear and concise verbal commands for the driver and the occupants to exit the vehicle. All occupants failed to comply and refused to exit the vehicle. Due to heavy vehicle traffic within the parking lot, a small space in front of the suspect vehicle shortly appeared after a pedestrian moved their vehicle.”

Charles at that point quickly accelerated through the gap, allegedly heedless of pedestrians,  exited the parking and drove westbound in the eastbound lanes of Palm Coast Parkway, against traffic, just as he would shortly afterwards further south, with a fatal result. Charles took the ramp onto I-95 and sped south. 

“A pursuit was initiated and [the] vehicle continued to flee and elude multiple law enforcement officers,” the Flagler sheriff’s deputy’s report states. Charles took Old Dixie Highway westbound. Deputies deployed stop sticks, which are intended to puncture tires. The device “successfully spiked the suspect vehicle[‘]s tires,” the report states, but not so successfully as to slow it down. The Suburban then sideswiped a detective’s vehicle as it got in front of it on U.S. 1 going south. 

A dashcam video shows the sideswipe and the Suburban speeding and swerving on U.S. 1, blowing through one set of red lights, passing cars at the intersection with I-95, then getting onto the exit ramp, going the wrong way. The Suburba almost struck a “Disaster Relief” van and a white pick-up truck, both of whose drivers veered onto the grassy shoulder just in time to avoid a collision. The Suburban continued on the sharp curve as the Beetle was driving down in the opposite direction, unaware. The Suburban crashed into the Beetle, and two men jumped out. 

The woman was airlifted to Halifax hospital in Daytona Beach, where she died. Charles and Hansen are being held at the Volusia County jail. 

“On behalf of myself and the Flagler Sheriff’s Office, we extend our deepest sympathy and condolences to the family of the loved one that they lost,” the sheriff said. “We will conduct a thorough review because we owe that to the family. We do it anyways, because we’re an accredited agency, which requires that anytime we have a vehicle apprehension, we have to do a review. So that would be done regardless. But we do owe it to the family. But all of this could have been avoided if the criminal had made the right decisions instead of a bad decisions. I mean, what the hell did he think was going to happen going up in exit ramp on the interstate?”