Florida man runs over an officer at a traffic stop. At least he was polite about it.
Say what you will about a Florida man who speeds off after a traffic stop and clips the officer with his passenger side mirror.
At least he was polite. He apologized before running the officer down.
The Daytona Beach Shores Police Department released a video of the Wednesday incident in which William Patterson of Volusia County was stopped for a seat-belt violation.
Everything seemed to be going fine until the officer found out Patterson, 28, had a suspended license and asked him to get out of his truck.
Instead, Patterson is seen throwing his white Ford F150 into reverse, saying “Sorry, man,” and taking off along State Road A1A. His mirror clipped the officer, who had pointed his weapon at the driver.
The officer slides into his police car and calls in to dispatch.
“I’ve got a car that is running. He tried to run me over,” the officer calls out between breaths. “He ran me over! He’s heading west bound.”
According to NBC’s WESH2, Patterson was hit by the officer’s Taser gun. One of its probes hit him in the neck.
The police chase
That didn’t stop Patterson from leading the officer on a chase down A1A. He was finally stopped in the Longstreet Elementary School speed zone, but the school zone was not busy at the time, Lt. Michael Fowler told Click Orlando.
In the video, the officer yells out to Patterson, ordering him out of the Ford truck. He complies. “Lift your shirt from the back!”
Patterson, barefoot, walks backward toward the arresting officer, his hands clutching his shirt above his shoulders and his sweat pants drooping low enough for cops to put a blurring bubble over his lower region and what appears to be red underwear covering Patterson’s rump.
The charges
Patterson was charged with fleeing or attempting to elude, resisting arrest without violence, possession of 20 or more grams of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia, aggravated battery and aggravated assault on an officer and felony driving with a suspended or canceled license.
He is being held in Volusia County Jail on a total bond of $51,000.
Patterson has been arrested 13 previous times dating back to when he was 20 in 2010. The charges included domestic battery, cannabis possession, petit theft, habitual driving with a revoked license, and obstructing an officer without violence.
This story was originally published May 24, 2019 at 1:02 PM with the headline "Florida man runs over an officer at a traffic stop. At least he was polite about it.."
