Interstate 75 was shut down in both directions on Tuesday between Micanopy and Williston Road in Gainesville as law enforcement attempted to apprehend a suspect who allegedly shot and killed two people in Union County.

According to an Alachua County Sheriff’s Office (ACSO) release, the incident started around 5 p.m. when the Alachua County Combined Communications Center received a call from the Union County Sheriff’s Office (UCSO) regarding a double murder that occurred an hour earlier.

The UCSO release stated that, at approximately 4:30 p.m., its office received calls of shots being fired off of S.W. County Road 241 in the Providence area in western Union County.

Deputies responded and found two female victims on scene dead from apparent gunshot wounds. The suspect fled the area in a 2020 black Ford F-150. While on scene, one of the UCSO units contacted the suspect by phone. The name of one of the victims was Candace Joseph, 43, of Lake Butler, and a 47-year-old woman from Texas, whose name has not been released at the time of the report. The suspect shot Joseph, his estranged girlfriend of 13 years, and the other woman who was helping her move out.

UCSO then contacted the Alachua County Combined Communications Center and advised that the suspect, later identified as Jason Holton, 47, of Lake Butler, was driving the Ford F-150 and that the vehicle was possibly traveling northbound on U.S. Highway 441 through Alachua County near High Springs.

ACSO deputies, along with officers from the High Springs Police Department and Alachua Police Department, started utilizing real-time intelligence systems to locate the vehicle. Information obtained indicated the pickup truck had traveled through High Springs and Alachua and was believed to have entered I-75 southbound.

Around 5:26 p.m., an ACSO deputy notified ACSO dispatch that he was behind the Ford F-150 near mile marker 386, traveling south on I-75. Additional ACSO deputies and Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) troopers joined the chase.

Law enforcement attempted to conduct a traffic stop on the vehicle at 5:30 p.m. and the driver fled, continuing southbound on I-75. Due to the violence associated with the suspect and the dangerous speeds involved, an FHP trooper conducted a Precision Immobilization Technique (PIT) maneuver, causing the pickup truck to stop on the west shoulder of I-75.

Law enforcement personnel worked to contain the scene and issued multiple commands for the driver to exit the vehicle. The ACSO SWAT Team, ACSO Aviation Unit, Gainesville Police Department Drone Unit and ACSO Negotiations Response Team were activated.

Following no response from the driver, the ACSO Swat Team utilized equipment and tactics to approach the pickup truck, where they found the lone male driver dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

From the onset of the incident, ACSO personnel took protective measures to prevent citizen injuries by shutting down I-75 in both directions.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), in conjunction with UCSO, is investigating the double homicide that occurred in Union County. The ACSO Crime Scene Investigation Unit and Criminal Investigations Bureau are assisting FDLE with investigating the scene on I-75.

Editor’s note: This story was updated with the names of the suspect and one of the victims he shot.