A deputy was forced to use a flashlight to break a car window during the arrest of a suspect near the Village of Fenney.
A Sumter County sheriff’s deputy responded at about 1 p.m. Saturday to the area of County Road 501 and Warm Springs Avenue after a report of a man trying to break into a house. The caller believed the man was under the influence of narcotics.
The deputy pulled over a Mercury Marquis, driven by a man later determined to be 51-year-old Howard Guy Stanford, of Wildwood.
Stanford cracked his window slightly, locked his doors, and slid his driver’s license out the window. He then told the deputy, “You are dismissed.”
The deputy noted the smell of marijuana and tried to gain access to the Mercury Marquis. Stanford would not acknowledge requests to exit the vehicle and accused the deputy of “unlawfully kidnapping” him, the arrest report said.
Stanford dialed 911 and told a dispatcher he was “being abducted and kidnapped by law enforcement.”
Back-up deputies arrived on the scene and “stop sticks” were placed in front of the Mercury Marquis to prevent Stanford from driving away. He backed up, into the path of another deputy who was forced to take evasive action.
Stanford slightly lowered his window and a deputy stuck in a flashlight to prevent the window from being rolled all the way back up. Stanford tried to grab the flashlight and ultimately the deputy used it to smash the driver’s side window. Stanford was “extricated” from the vehicle and placed in handcuffs.
He was arrested on multiple charges, including assault on a law enforcement officer, resisting arrest and misuse of 911. He was booked at the Sumter County Detention Center on $15,000 bond.
