Driver rammed stolen Jeep into deputy’s car before chase killed man, BSO says
.jpg "A 73-year-old man was killed Monday, Feb. 16, 2026, in a car crash with a Broward Sheriff’s Office deputy who was chasing a driver accused of stealing a Jeep in Margate.")
A 73-year-old man was killed late Monday night after a Broward Sheriff’s Office deputy’s car crashed into his Toyota pickup truck at a Tamarac intersection while chasing an SUV that was reported stolen earlier in the night.
As Ronald Wilson’s friends and family mourn, the sheriff’s office said its deputies likely followed chase policy in the chaotic moments leading to the fatal collision.
At 11:54 p.m., about three minutes before the crash, another deputy pulled behind the 2015 Jeep Cherokee that Margate police reported stolen and asked BSO help with locating. The driver of the Jeep abruptly stopped on North State Road 7 and reversed, intentionally crashing into the deputy, according to an arrest report requested by the Herald.
The Jeep driver, 30-year-old Sean Paul Holder, had just crashed though a gate in the parking lot of a Flanagan’s restaurant, and pieces of the fence were wedged into the top of the car, the sheriff’s office said. He smashed through the gate after likely noticing law-enforcement vehicles responding to the Margate alert, according to the report.
The impact from the collision with the deputy caused some of the gate posts to become lodged into the front of the Dodge Charger patrol car. The deputy, Robert Acosta, wrote in his report that he “briefly experienced shock” after the crash and was in fear for his life.
This constituted felony aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer and triggered the pursuit by dozens of other BSO deputies that ended with Wilson being killed and Holder being arrested after another deputy used his car to force the Jeep off the road, according to the report.
The Broward Sheriff’s Office, like other law-enforcement agencies, has stringent rules on when its deputies can chase a vehicle, , outlining situations that allow for it, according to the agency’s policy.
The first rule is the subject of the chase had to have committed a “forcible felony,” described in BSO’s policy “as a person using or threatening physical violence against someone else, for example, murder, carjacking, aggravated assault and battery.
“Vehicle pursuits require greater degrees of caution, skill, common sense, and sound judgment for emergency operations,” the policy reads.
The other two scenarios when deputies are allowed to chase a car are:
- A physical breach to a security checkpoint, fence or barrier within Port Everglades or Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
- The deputy has “a reasonable belief” that pursuing a fleeing vehicle is necessary to prevent a death or serious bodily injury.
BSO said in a statement Wednesday that its Pursuit Review Board will determine if deputies followed the agency’s rules on vehicle chases. The agency also stressed “that deputies began pursuing the suspect’s vehicle following an aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer, which is a forcible felony.”
.READ MORE: Driver chased by BSO faces murder charge after other driver dies; chase reviewed
Unsuccessful PIT maneuver
After the deputy was hit, he radioed other deputies where Holder was heading, and his colleagues began pursuing the Jeep with lights and sirens on, according to the report. Holder turned east from State Road 7 onto West McNab Road, making “multiple erratic lane changes and abrupt directional changes in his attempts to elude law enforcement,” Deputy Ian Kuechler wrote in his report.
At 11:56 p.m, Holder sped east on Prospect Road approaching the intersection of Northwest 31st Avenue in Tamarac, where Wilson would lose his life, Kuechler wrote.
A minute later, another deputy, Brian Quintal, tried unsuccessfully to force Holder off the road using the Precision Immobilization Technique, or what cops call the PIT maneuver, using the push bar on the front of his car, according to Kuechler’s report. When this didn’t work, Quintal temporarily lost control of his car, Kuechler wrote.
He quickly regained control, but as he drove into the intersection, his car rammed the side of Wilson’s pickup truck as Wilson was making a left turn from Northwest 31st Avenue onto Prospect Road, according to the report. Paramedics took both Quintal and Wilson to Broward Health Medical Center. An hour later, Wilson was pronounced dead, Kuechler wrote.
The sheriff’s office said Wednesday that Quintal “is currently recovering from his injuries.”
Whether he saw the crash or not, Holder kept driving east on Prospect Road, according to the report. As he approached the 2600 block of Northwest 55th Court in Fort Lauderdale, deputies again used the PIT maneuver, this time successfully forcing him to crash off the side of the road, Kuechler wrote.
A deputy with a police dog broke one of the Jeep’s windows and arrested Holder. He was briefly treated for minor injuries at Broward Health Medical Center, and then booked into BSO’s main jail, according to the report.
He’s being held without bond on the following charges: murder while engaged in a specified felony, aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer, grand-theft auto and driving with a suspended license. Information about his legal representation was not immediately available. Holder also had an active warrant for petit theft.
According to court records, Holder has a long arrest history in Broward County going back to 2016, including three previous convictions for grand theft of an automobile. .
This story was originally published February 19, 2026 at 10:35 AM.
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