An 81-year-old Villager in a golf cart was arrested on a charge of driving under the influence at Winn-Dixie at Lake Sumter Landing.
Emergency personnel were summoned at about 4:30 p.m. Friday after Donald Henderson Flowers of 1526 Chapin Court in the Village of Sunset Pointe fell in the parking lot of the store, according to an arrest report from the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office.
EMS found the Kansas City native on the ground and noted he had some scratches on his knee and elbow from the fall. Flowers declined medical attention and got back into his golf cart and drove onto the sidewalk near the liquor store section of Winn-Dixie. When deputies arrived on the scene, Flowers had a bottle of vodka in his hand, but attempted to hide it in a compartment of the golf cart.
Flowers was unsteady on his feet as he got out of the golf cart. A deputy took the golf cart’s key and put it on the roof of the vehicle. Deputies asked Flowers if he had been drinking. He claimed he’d had “two beers.”
Flowers agreed to participate in field sobriety exercises, but said he might have some difficulty because he’d broken his ankle while golfing in 2019 and had surgery to repair it. He said the ankle is still healing and he uses a cane sometimes when he walks. He struggled through the exercises and had to sing the alphabet because he could not recite it correctly.
He provided two breath samples that both registered .171 blood alcohol content.
He was taken into custody and booked at the Sumter County Detention Center. He was released after posting $1,000 bond.
