A 30-year-old off-duty West Palm Beach police officer died Sunday after his car went into a canal along North Congress Avenue, a police spokesman said Monday.
At 5:21 a.m., a 911 caller reported seeing a car go into the canal off Congress Avenue just south of Lombard Street, just east of Interstate 95. Another 911 caller said the car was upside down in the water with no one getting out, police spokesman Mike Jachles said in a news release.
Officers arrived within minutes, went into the water and brought the driver of the 2017 Ford Fusion to shore, Jachles said. They began CPR and West Palm Beach Fire Department paramedics took him to St. Marys Medical Center in critical condition.
The driver, identified as Joshua Tyree Ballesteros, died later Sunday at the hospital.
“Traffic homicide investigators determined that the Ford Fusion was northbound on Congress Avenue when, for reasons unknown, it ran off the road and struck a guardrail before hitting a tree, rolling over and landing in the canal upside down,” Jachles said.
Southbound Congress Avenue was shut down for several hours while investigators conducted the on-scene investigation, and the car was removed from the canal.