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HAINES CITY, Fla. — An early-morning shooting Sunday involving a Haines City police officer is under investigation by the Polk County Sheriff’s Office. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd and Haines City Police Chief Jay Hopwood detailed the incident in a news conference Sunday afternoon. According to Hopwood, the officers involved were conducting a traffic stop on a pickup truck with no tag and dark window tints at approximately 2:30 a.m. in the area of Avenue I and 12th Street N. in Haines City. Hopwood says the suspect in the stopped vehicle suddenly backed up, nearly striking the patrol vehicle and...

A naked Florida man terrorized a neighborhood in a late-night rampage, breaking into multiple homes and destroying property — with on-edge neighbors saying he’s lucky he wasn’t shot dead. The bare-naked burglar, identified by police as 23-year-old Joshua Garrison, was caught on security camera lurking through backyards in Pinellas Park outside of St. Petersburg last week, touching himself sexually and causing significant damage. “I was asleep, and the doorbell rang, and I answered the door,” neighbor David Dale told WFLA. “Opened the door and there was a guy standing there, and he was stark naked.”

“The alleged pyromaniac accused of igniting the deadly Palisades Fire – Los Angeles’ most destructive wildfire – chipped in a tiny donation to Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign, records show. Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, shelled out $2 to hybrid PAC ActBlue on two separate occasions just days apart in 2020 – $1 on Sept. 4 and another buck on Sept. 11, according to the Federal Election Commission. Records also show the alleged arsonist — born in France — was registered to vote in Florida, though he never declared a political party.”

Authorities have arrested a 29-year-old Uber driver in connection to the investigation into the deadly January Palisades Fire. Jonathan Rinderknecht, of Melbourne, Florida, was arrested Tuesday near his home on suspicion of destruction of property by means of fire. If convicted as charged, Rinderknecht faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years and up to 20 years in federal prison. "He is charged with starting a fire on Jan. 1," Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said. "It did take a week to reignite, but he is charged with starting the Palisades Fire." The criminal complaint covers the damages and death...

A firefighter was accused of stalking after she allegedly dumped 75 "possibly used" tampons onto her ex-boyfriend's lawn when she learned that he was dating a new woman. The Volusia County Sheriff's Office was contacted by a woman on September 30 after she and her boyfriend woke up to find a pile of tampons on their front lawn that were "stained red as if they were possibly used," according to a probable cause arrest affidavit obtained by Law&Crime. Police reviewed security camera recordings that showed a pickup truck driving past the house at around 10 p.m. on September 29, per...

Florida CANNOT be a real place..

A Florida high school football coach is accused of hitting three students in a heated brawl during practice, weeks after he allegedly fought another student at a different school. Blanche Ely High School assistant football coach Jamir Clarke was arrested Monday after getting into a physical altercation with the students during practice, according to a Broward Sheriff’s Office police report obtained by Local 10. Clarke, 29, had allegedly confronted one of his student players for posting something negative online about someone he knew. When the player admitted to making the post, the 6-foot-7, 400-pound coach allegedly called the student a...

Jury found him guilty of all charges. FORT PIERCE, Fla. — The jury weighing the fate of the man accused of attempting to gun down Donald Trump on a Florida golf course last year has reached a verdict. Jury deliberations got underway Tuesday after Ryan Wesley Routh capped his two-week trial, during which he served as his own attorney, by delivering a brief and disjointed closing argument during which he tried to argue that there was no crime because he never fired a shot at Trump. But just 12 minutes in his monologue, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon interrupted Routh...

Jurors on Tuesday delivered a guilty verdict for Ryan Routh on all charges after he attempted to assassinate then-presidential candidate Donald Trump at his West Palm Beach golf club last September. After the verdict was read, Routh reportedly appeared to try to stab himself in the neck with a pen before four U.S. Marshals restrained him. His daughter, Sara Routh, reportedly stood up and said: "Don’t do anything. I will get you out. What the f---, f---, he didn’t hurt anybody. This is not fair. This is all rigged – you guys are a--holes." The jury was still in the...

An adored mom was mowed down and dragged to her death by a serial traffic offender in a horrifying late-night hit-and-run that has left a Florida seaside town reeling. Kjersten Aileen-Hermance Strang, 38, was riding her e-bike along 49th Street South, in Gulfport, around 10pm on Saturday when Xavier Omar Rigby, 22 slammed into her, hurling her onto the windshield of his Nissan Altima. Rigby was barreling along the road at a 'high rate of speed' when he slammed into the rear of Strang's bike.

A drunk Florida man allegedly mowed down a woman who was riding an "E-bike" and then drove for "approximately eight blocks" with her body on the windshield of his Nissan Altima before she was "dislodged" and left for dead, cops say. Xavier Rugby [sic], 22, is charged with leaving the scene of a crash involving death, vehicular homicide leaving the scene, and DUI manslaughter for the Saturday night slaying of St. Petersburg resident Kjersten Aileen-Hermance Strang, 38, according to a Pinellas County Sheriff's Office press release. Strang was traveling on 49th Street South in Gulfport when she was struck by...

President Donald Trump's $15 billion lawsuit against The New York Times has been tossed, for now. Calling the president's 85-page lawsuit "decidedly improper and impermissible," a federal judge in Tampa threw it out on Friday and gave him 28 days to file a new complaint that had to be under 40 pages. U.S. District Judge Steven D. Merryday blasted the Trump suit for alleging only two acts of defamation, yet "Count I appears on page eighty, and Count II appears on page eighty-three." He also criticized the suit's flowery descriptions about Trump and overly political language, writing a complaint is...

I feel sorry that people under 65 years old won’t get a chuckle out of this. EC

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Deputies are hunting for a man who robbed the Paddlefish restaurant at Disney Springs by swimming up in scuba gear and making off with thousands of dollars. The robbery occurred shortly after midnight on Monday, after the restaurant had closed to guests, WFTV reported. According to a sheriff’s office report, the man entered the manager’s office where cash from the night was being counted. He reportedly forced two employees to the corner of the room and instructed them to close their eyes. Sources familiar with the investigation told WFTV the employees were tied up. The...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Jacksonville City Councilman Rory Diamond called on his colleagues to “swiftly” remove a city government appointee, Leofric Thomas Jr., from the Public Service Grants Council after he appeared to justify the assassination of Charlie Kirk. “Calling on my council colleagues to swiftly remove Leofric Thomas, Jr. as an appointee to our City government,” Diamond said. “Disgusting.” Thomas’ now-deleted post read: “When you spew hate it’s what you get back. Charlie spewed nothing but hate, so what he got back, was….. yeah,” adding a shrug emoji.

CAPE CORAL, Fla. (WFLA) — A caped crusader helped put a stop to a crime happening overnight Wednesday in his neighborhood, Cape Coral police said. The Cape Coral Police Department said it was just after 2 a.m. when officers received reports of a burglary in progress at a home in the southeast part of the city. When officers arrived, they discovered the suspect, Justin Schimpl, 20, had already been detained by a neighbor. The neighbor, Kyle Myvett, was dressed in Batman pajamas. Myvett told officers he had gone to bed for the night but was later awoken when his...

ATLANTIC BEACH, Fla. – A man died Monday night after he was shot by nine officers following a tense and chaotic series of events that began at a boat ramp and ended in a crash in Atlantic Beach, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said. According to JSO, the incident began around 6 p.m. at the Dutton Island Preserve boat ramp, where a couple from Georgia was fishing when they heard gunshots from across the water. The couple told police they saw a man, 37, shooting a rifle into the water, and the husband decided to approach the man and ask him...

Nooo! That’s not how you do it! While trying to take a photo with a lemon shark during a birthday fishing trip Saturday in Cayo Costa, Florida, things ended up going horribly wrong for Shawn Meuse, per Gulf Coast News. Making a recovery at Gulf Coast Medical Center, Meuse said he had a hold of the shark as he prepared to let it go back into the water when the bite took place. (RELATED: Australian Surfer Sees Board Get Smashed In Half By Great White Shark) “You don’t know what a wild animal is going to do, you know? So...

A Florida man repeatedly used his sprinkler system to hose down special needs children as they got on and off their school bus, police have said. Antonio Roman, 61, was arrested by deputies with Marion County Sheriff's Office after repeatedly using the sprinkler system on the family next door to him in Ocala. Officials say he intentionally activated the sprinklers twice daily, when his two victims departed for school and again when they returned. Deputies said the father of the children had to resort to wearing a swim suit to shield his children, who use wheelchairs, from the repeat behavior....