The truck driver involved in a fiery crash last week that killed a Pennsylvania state trooper was allegedly an illegal immigrant from Haiti.
According to Pennsylvania State Police, 44-year-old trooper Michael Pahira Jr. was conducting a commercial vehicle inspection along Interstate 81 in Schuylkill County last Wednesday morning when another semi-truck drove off the road, striking his marked police vehicle and the truck he was inspecting, before also hitting the officer himself.
Both trucks caught fire in the crash, and Pahira later died at a local hospital. In a press conference last week, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro remembered the 20-year veteran state trooper as “the very best of us.”
The Suspect
As reported on Monday’s AM Update, the driver who left the road and hit Pahira has been identified by Fox News as 33-year-old Michael Bon, a Haitian national living in the U.S. illegally. Bon faces charges of homicide by vehicle, involuntary manslaughter, reckless driving, and six additional lesser charges.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), meanwhile, has lodged an immigration detainer against Bon, alleging he entered the U.S. in July 2024 through Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport under the Biden administration’s humanitarian parole program.
He later applied for Temporary Protected Status (TPS), but his application was denied. Fox News reported DHS then terminated his parole in June 2025 and ordered him to leave the country. Bon did not leave.
Rules of the Road
Bon obtained a non-domiciled commercial driver’s license (CDL) while living in Massachusetts in March 2025. Historically, foreign nationals who are legally authorized to work in the U.S. but do not have a permanent residence, or domicile, in the issuing state could apply for non-domiciled CDLs.
He qualifying for the license in 2025 under federal law and had it renewed in February 2026 before the Trump administration directed states to stop issuing or renewing non-domiciled CDLs for ineligible drivers.
Last year, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy launched a nationwide audit of states issuing non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses after a series of deadly crashes, including crashes in Wyoming, Florida, and California.
Bon is currently being held in Schuylkill County Prison on $700,000 bail and is due back in court July 15.
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