A woman has been arrested in connection with a crash on Florida’s Turnpike in Broward County earlier this year that killed an aspiring firefighter from Miami-Dade County.
Sunshine Renae Perez, 45, was booked into the Miami-Dade County jail on Tuesday, based on a Florida Highway Patrol arrest warrant issued on April 16.
Perez is accused of driving under the influence in the Jan. 9 crash that killed Ezequiel Urrutia, according to the arrest warrant.
Urrutia was killed in the head-on crash with a speeding driver who was driving the wrong way, into oncoming traffic, according to a Miami Dade College Foundation scholarship website, created in his honor.
He graduated from Miami-Palmetto Senior High School in 2020 and from the Miami Dade College Fire Academy in the same year and was working full-time as a paramedic for an ambulance service in Miami-Dade County. The college created the Zeke Urrutia Firefighter Scholarship after his death.
“From the time he was in preschool, when asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, Zeke Urrutia always had the same answer: ‘Fireman.’ His passion for service and helping others was evident from an early age,” the scholarship page says.
Perez is facing seven counts stemming from the crash: two counts of DUI manslaughter, one count of vehicular homicide, two counts of DUI causing property damage and two counts of reckless driving causing property damage, according to the arrest warrant.
The warrant did not include further information about the investigation or the allegations against Perez aside from the charges.
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