Volunteer troopers help nab carjacking suspect in Volusia County

A carjacking suspect wanted out of Delray Beach was arrested Sunday morning after being spotted by Florida High Patrol auxiliary troopers, the agency said.

Troopers Casper Johnson and Bernard Martin were searching for disabled cars on I-95 near Oak Hill when they spotted a 2019 Silver Chevy Malibu.

“There was a male sleeping in the back seat. When they ran the tag, it came up stolen. Then it was flagged that it had been involved in a carjacking,” explained Lieutenant Kim Montes. 

Samuel Choisie was arrested and booked into the Volusia County Jail.

Lt. Montes said Johnson and Martin are part of the agency’s auxiliary program, with about 200 volunteer troopers around the state.

“These auxiliary troopers are volunteers. They don’t get paid to do this. They are out there to help the citizens of Central Florida and they do it all on their own time,” she said.

They are fully trained and carry a weapon, though they don’t directly respond to calls. Instead, Lt. Montes said they mostly help with routine work and support paid troopers when needed.

The troopers are able to make an arrest; however, must be in direct contact with troopers. In Sunday’s case, a paid trooper was called in to make the arrest with Volusia County deputies assisting.

Lt. Montes said Sunday’s situation is an example that they must be prepared for everything even while doing routine work.

“They’re trained like a regular trooper in order to be out there and be able to handle this,” she said. She said troopers like Johnson and Bernard are critical for the agency especially when staffing levels are low.“

They are there to buffer what we have or lack thereof and a lot of times without them we couldn’t do this job fully,” said Lt. Montes.

The troopers must go through full training to become a part of the program. They drive fully marked FHP patrol cars.

“They want to give back. We have some auxiliary troopers that have been doing it for 30 plus years,” said Lt. Montes.

Click here to learn more about the program: https://fhpa.info/

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