ECU student, State Highway Patrol intern dies in patrol vehicle crash

GREENVILLE, N.C. (WITN) - State Highway Patrol is mourning the loss of an intern who was killed in a crash on Saturday.

Michael Steven Higgins was a 22-year-old ECU student, participating in the Highway Patrol's college internship program while working on a major in criminal justice.

Higgins was a passenger in the patrol vehicle, riding along as a state trooper was trying to overtake a suspected impaired driver, according to Highway Patrol. He died from his injuries at the scene.

The trooper, Omar Romero, was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. He is a two-year veteran assigned to Pitt County Troop A, District 5.

“My heart breaks for everyone touched by this extremely tragic situation. Our college interns are a part of the Patrol family and we are in mourning as we have lost one of our own beloved members. I extend my sincerest condolences to the Higgins family, to the faculty and students of East Carolina University and to anyone who had the privileged opportunity to know Michael," said Colonel Glenn M. McNeill, Jr., commander of the State Highway Patrol.

The SHP’s Internal Affairs Unit and Reconstruction Unit are completing both internal and criminal independent investigations, which is agency protocol anytime a trooper is involved in a fatal collision.