Arrest made in Feb. 20 crash that left Ocala couple dead

Scene of Feb. 20 fatal collision in Ocala. [Photo by Jennifer Hunt Murty]

A local 17-year-old male has been arrested in connection with a Feb. 20 crash that claimed the lives of an Ocala couple–Spencer Holden, 30, and his wife, Samantha, 35–according to the Ocala Police Department.

The teen, whose identity is not being published by the “Gazette” because he is a minor, was arrested Tuesday on two counts each of DUI manslaughter and vehicular homicide and three counts of DUI property damage, according to an OPD press release. The injured teen’s blood-alcohol level was reportedly .188, more than twice the level at which a person is legally considered intoxicated, when it was tested upon his arrival at the hospital, according to OPD.

The delay in the teen’s arrest was attributed to “obtaining search warrants and working with FDLE (the Florida Department of Law Enforcement) to process and analyze evidence, (which) takes time,” according to a OPD spokesperson.

According to a media release, when OPD officers arrived on the scene of the 8:30 p.m. crash in the 1300 block of Southeast 36^th Avenue, “The couple’s car was fully engulfed in flames, which Ocala Fire Rescue extinguished. The man was ejected from the vehicle, while the woman was trapped inside. Both were declared deceased at the scene.”

OFR station 2 was less than a mile away from the accident. However, public records reflect a delay in OFR being dispatched 3 minutes and 28 seconds after the location had been identified. The OFR engine containing water to fight the fiery crash did not arrive on the scene until 7 minutes and 44 seconds after the crash site was identified.

Marion County Fire Rescue ambulance was dispatched at least one minute before OFR was, and their ambulance was first on the scene. The couple had already been declared deceased; however, MCFR transported the injured teen. An internal affairs investigation on the late dispatch, recently released by OPD, found 911 personnel made unintentional errors that were attributed to call volume, training and strained management.

As previously reported by the “Gazette,” OPD primary dispatchers are expected to know how to do fire and law dispatch, which is made more difficult in that law enforcement dispatchers use specific codes while fire dispatchers use plain language. This challenge was noted in the investigation into the Feb. 20 incident. Additionally, law and fire/medical unit response matrixes are different.

Ocala’s 911 call center dispatches fire/medical/and law within city limits. Although Ocala has its own fire and law departments, the city relies on MCFR to send ambulances with medics to any call requiring medical services the city dispatches.

The city’s 911 call center is structured differently than the county’s. The county has dedicated fire and law dispatchers and a larger layer of supervision over 911 call takers than the city does.

The city’s 911 call center supervisors commonly work as primary fire or law dispatchers at the same time they are supervising and with a much smaller staff than the county comes fewer contingency backups.

The county used to dispatch all fire/medical calls. However, in July of 2020, under the request of then-Fire Chief Shane Alexander and Police Chief Greg Graham, OFR dispatch was moved to the city’s 911 call center with the goal of bringing quicker service to city residents.

Editor’s Note: This accident is one example of how important our dispatch emergency call takers are to public safety and why so many communities across the country are choosing to consolidate emergency communications rather than deconsolidate, as Ocala has done. The “Gazette” has asked to speak with the Mayor Ben Marciano and OPD Chief Mike Balken about the challenges to emergency communication. The “Gazette” has also made a public records request to Marion County and Ocala officials for fire response matrixes to articulate the differences between services provided by the city and the county. This information is relevant in the broader context of how the agencies are dealing with the area’s rapid population growth and the rising demand and costs of public safety given the shortage of personnel handling emergency calls for service.