CORAL GABLES, Fla. — A family is desperate for answers as they prepare to lay a beloved father to rest.
Truck driver Arsenio Mas was killed on the job Feb. 2 when his semi-truck collided with a trooper's cruiser during a high-speed chase on Interstate 95 in St. Lucie County.
Mas' son, Reineir Rodriguez, told WPTV in an exclusive interview that his father was a "great man" who provided for multiple generations and enjoyed gathering the family for barbecues.
Rodriguez said his father came to the United States from Cuba in search of a better life and worked as a truck driver for 25 years.
He'd been on the road for a week, Rodriguez said, when his truck collided with Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Zachary Fink's cruiser.
"A good man died who was working for his family," Rodriguez said in Spanish.
Fink was laid to rest Monday with full honors.
Mas' funeral is on hold until his daughter can come to the U.S. from Cuba.
"We're working on a humanitarian visa to get her here," Carlos Silva, the attorney now representing the family, said. "It's not easy. It's a slow process."
While Silva works to bring the family together, he is also working to bring them answers.
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"The one thing that I want to know is what was this gentleman fleeing from, or this criminal fleeing from, that caused this horrific accident?" Silva said.
According to the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office, suspect Michael Addison sped away from a traffic stop the morning of the crash. A deputy had pulled Addison over for speeding. Addison also had warrants for assault and weapons charges in Broward County.
Addison is now in the St. Lucie County Jail, held without bond and charged in Fink and Mas' deaths.
"Is this a death that should have been prevented or should have never happened or was it really the criminal at large?" Silva said. "Was it so important to put the public in danger?"
FHP is currently investigating the crash.
While Silva said the agency is "keeping (the investigation) very close to the vest," the attorney will conduct his own parallel investigation using crash reconstruction and any other information he can obtain.
"We will ask for all the communications and all the information that needs to come out," Silva said. "We will know what happened."
"I want justice … because you can't bring (my father) back," Rodriguez said.
On the day of the crash, the FHP released Fink’s name but initially withheld Mas' name, telling WPTV in an email that they were only releasing his city of residence and age "as respect to the family."
The agency said at the time that the victim's name would appear in the crash report, which can take up to 120 days to complete. WPTV has requested a copy of that report.
Rodriguez told WPTV that as far as he knows, nobody in his family asked FHP to withhold his father's name.
The FHP released Mas' name in a news release five days after the crash.
"Victims in crashes require next of kin notification to be made, this was done. (The) Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles proactively released the name of the victim via press release," Molly Best, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles' director of communications, said in an email Thursday to WPTV. "We may choose to do this when there is sufficient public interest and a nexus to FHP involvement. In this instance, since the crash involved a Trooper and department vehicle, the Director made a decision to proactively release the name of the other deceased driver, even absent any public records request."
