Officials have released new details in the Wednesday afternoon boat crash near the Miami Marine Stadium that killed professional soccer player Anton Walkes.
A Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission report released Friday said that Walkes was a passenger on a 11-foot Yamaha personal watercraft operated by 32-year-old Luise Taubert, which collided with a 46-foot cabin boat driven by 69-year-old Eric Olsson of Pompano Beach in Biscayne Bay north of the Rickenbacker Causeway.
Walkes, a 25-year-old native of England, was found unconscious Wednesday following the crash. He was taken to an area hospital where he later died.
Get South Florida local news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC South Florida newsletters.
The FWC report said Taubert and Olsson were not injured in the crash. It also noted that it was unknown if alcohol was a factor.
An investigation into the crash remains active.
Virginia Key alliance founder Sunny McLean for years has complained about congestion and reckless boating in the channel.
Local
"I might say that it has improved slightly since the signs finally went up with the slow wake but the difficulty in enforcing that means that it is only a band-aid, we still get lots of dangerous people out on the water there," McLean said.
Walkes signed with Tottenham Hotspur at 16 years old as a defender and midfielder before being loaned to Portsmouth of England's League One. He later played with the Atlanta United of the MLS starting in 2017 and again in 2020-2021 before joining Charlotte in 2021.
He started 21 of the 23 games he appeared in last season.
