Is I-95 less safe after slaying?
Police offer few details about driver’s shooting
A day after a driver was shot and killed on Interstate 95, Boca Raton police won’t say whether motorists are safe from a shooter on the loose.
Police say an unknown gunman shot Edvin Milkevic early Wednesday near Yamato Road, but they have given the public few details about the crime. That includes whether the killer knew Milkevic or whether it was a random act of violence on the highway.
Asked whether people should be concerned about driving on I-95 after the shooting, a police spokesman replied: “Whenever people are driving, they should remain vigilant and be aware of their surroundings.”
Milkevic, 29, of Boca Raton, was driving a black 2012 Nissan 370Z when the car hit several construction cones and came to rest in the grass west of the highway.
A Florida Highway Patrol trooper at a nighttime paving job on I-95 heard the crash near Yamato Road about 2:40 a.m. The trooper found Milkevic bleeding inside the car. He died at Delray Medical Center.
Police are reviewing other incidents and crimes to determine whether they are connected, said police spokesman Mark Economou.
Police “don’t have any evidence right now” connecting the Boca killing to a separate I-95 slaying Wednesday involving a sheriff’s deputy in Lantana, Boca Raton Police Officer Jessica Desir said late Thursday.
In that case, authorities say a man carried out a string of crimes between Tuesday and Wednesday, including shooting a woman dead in Lake Worth and wounding two others in Boynton Beach and West Palm Beach. It ended when the man, driving south on northbound I-95, caused several crashes before a deputy shot him dead.
Meanwhile, the lack of information in the Boca Raton killing left some commuters concerned. Tiffany Roy, of West Palm Beach, said she uses I-95 to get to Broward County several times a week. She said she wanted to know whether she has to worry about a sniper on the side of the road.
“You don’t want to feel that you need to avoid the road,” Roy said. “That to me is terrifying.”
A two-page Boca Raton police report released Thursday offered few clues. It says police responded to “an unknown death” caused by an “undetermined firearm.” Police would not say what type of gun was used to kill Milkevic, citing the ongoing investigation.
Police initially said the crash occurred at 4 a.m. Wednesday, but the time was listed as 2:43 a.m. after further investigation.
Milkevic had been in Delray Beach about 2:30 a.m., traveling on West Atlantic Avenue east of I-95, police said. They would not say how they determined that.
The Nissan ended up in a swale just a few miles from Milkevic’s Boca Raton home.
Cindy Galiardo, a resident who lives near where Milkevic was found, told police she heard two gunshots early Wednesday.
“My boyfriend and I heard like a ‘pop, pop,’ ” Galiardo recalled from her home in the Hidden Valley neighborhood. “At first I was nervous that it was in the neighborhood.”
Several hours before, Milkevic was working at Pasta and … Ristorante Italiano in Margate, where he was an assistant manager, the restaurant’s owner, Luigi Marenco, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel on Wednesday.
He would have been ending his shift about 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, Marenco said.
Milkevic had worked at the restaurant for several years. He came to the United States from Lithuania, neighbors said Wednesday afternoon.
He was “full of happiness, really intelligent and always there when you need help,” his friend Michaelangelo Marenco said Thursday. “As a friend of him and his family, we are simply devastated and speechless.”
Boca Raton police asked the public to contact them if they witnessed anything at the locations where Milkevic was, or if they have other information relevant to the investigation. Call Detective Tim Kurdys at 561-338-1377 or Crime Stoppers at 800-458-8477.