Free Republic

Florida drivers got to see a disturbing case of road rage this week. According to a police report from the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office, two detectives in an unmarked car were driving toward Englewood, south of Sarasota, in slow moving traffic. Suddenly, they came upon four men outside their cars in some sort of confrontation. The report says the detectives hit the emergency lights and parked behind one of the vehicles. As they got out of their their car, three men pointed at a man later identified as Michael Cittadino, yelling, “He’s got a machete!” The suspect, who was “moving...

Wearing a baseball cap, gloves and, it seems, nothing else, a Florida man burglarized a Little League concession stand in Dunedin earlier this month. The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office is now asking for help in identifying the man, who Greater Dunedin Little League president Susan Semitecolos said caused about $5,000 in damages. According to the Sheriff’s Office, the man broke into a concession stand at Fisher Field in Dunedin on April 7 around 4 a.m. Surveillance footage provided to the Tampa Bay Times by Semitecolos shows the man, appearing to be naked, rummaging through the stand. Semitecolos said he stole...

<p>Police arrested Ezekiel Hicks, 25, on murder charges early Sunday in the death of 41-year-old Craig Brewer, who was shot and killed at a Waffle House, in Gainesville, Florida, just a few miles west of the University of Florida.</p> <p>Officials with the Alachua County Sheriff's Office said the restaurant's surveillance camera captured an altercation between the two on video. Witnesses said the victim was arguing with a female acquaintance of the suspect, who was reportedly upset because Brewer's generosity didn't include her.</p>

Wayne Messam, the mayor of Miramar, said in a video released Thursday morning that he’s running for president. “The promise of America belongs to all of us. That's why I'm going to be running for president. To be your champion,” Messam said in the video.

PALM BEACH COUNTY, FL (Gray News) - A 35-year-old Florida man lost his life Saturday while trying to retrieve a pigeon he cared for from a power line. Deputies from the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office found Elian Garcia-Rivera around 3 p.m. They told The Palm Beach Post he used a 20-foot aluminum pool pole to try and move his bird, but accidentally touched the live power line. The shock threw him to the ground between a large pigeon coop and a fence. Paramedics transported him to a local hospital where he passed away. "There are no words to say,"...

The City Council has invited qualified applicants to make their case at Tuesday’s 7:30 p.m. meeting. Filling a vacancy on the council will be harder. PORT RICHEY — Officials aren't entirely sure who will lead the city now that two mayors have been arrested and suspended from office in less than a month. Nothing like this has ever happened before in the small, coastal Pasco County municipality of 2,800, said Assistant City Manager Jocilyn Martinez. Last month, Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended Mayor Dale Massad after he was arrested Feb. 21 on a variety of charges, including attempted murder. On Tuesday,...

SARASOTA COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) - In eastern Sarasota, beware of the crazy squirrel. The offending rodent has gone after four people, using its claws and teeth to injure his victims. “I was walking, walked right here, I was standing right here, I was looking in the truck. It came running up the back side here,” said Robby Armstrong. Armstrong's security camera caught the Saturday sneak attack. “The squirrel ran behind me and jumped on my side, went down my shoulder, got on my elbow and just chomped on me,” said Armstrong. The attack lasted only seconds, but the little guy...

ROYAL PALM BEACH, Fla. -- A manager at a Royal Palm Beach Arby's restaurant is accused of using pepper spray on an employee and chasing him with a knife. At 12:30 a.m. on Sunday, March 17, 2019, deputies responded to the restaurant located at 9970 Belvedere Road. Coworkers described an argument between the manager, 21-year-old Le'Terria Akins, and an employee, 29-year-old Ernst Point Du Jour. Witnesses told deputies that Point Du Jour was upset about not being released from work and got into a heated argument with Akins. The coworker said Point Du Jour got up close to Akins and...

A 350-pound gator greeted an unsuspecting Florida woman at her front door Tuesday morning, causing the panicked homeowner to flee. When Geri Staples heard the aggressive knock, she peeked out of a clear window in her door to see who — or what, rather — was causing the ruckus. To her surprise, an estimated 10-foot-long alligator was on the other side, and it appeared to be frustrated. "I saw him right there and he hit the door, and that’s when I ran [upstairs]. I wasn’t sure if he kept pounding like that if he could actually open the door with his...

ORLANDO, Fla. — Many parents find out the sex of their child before the baby is born. Others opt for the surprise, waiting to hear, "it's a boy" or 'its a girl." However, some families are exploring another option by raising a "gender neutral" child. What's a 'theyby'? Sparrow's parents decided to raise their baby without a known sex, giving Sparrow the option to choose gender free from stereotypes. Instead of "boy" or "girl", gender neutral babies are known as "theybies". "Theybies" refer to babies without a known sex.

One Florida man had an interesting interpretation of the phrase “kill ‘em with kindness,” police say. Bryan Duane Stewart, a 30-year-old from Milton, wrote the word “kindness” on a machete — and then tried to stab a neighbor with it on Wednesday, according to a police report McClatchy obtained from the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office. Jail records from the sheriff’s office say Stewart faces aggravated assault and aggravated battery charges and has a $10,000 bond after he was put behind bars at the Santa Rosa County Jail early Thursday morning. That neighbor went on a shopping run to...

PORT CANAVERAL, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - The Brevard County Sheriff's Office says a woman is behind bars, accused of deliberately trying to run over deputies. Deputies responded to a disturbance call in Cape Canaveral on Monday. They say a man called 911 saying that he wanted an intoxicated woman taken out of his home. Deputies say the woman was inside a car in the parking lot when they arrived on scene. They say they approached the car, at which time the woman put the car in reverse, hitting a car that was in her path. Officials say the...

HOLIDAY, Fla. (WFLA) - A Pasco County woman is facing a felony battery charge after deputies say she got into a fight over cat food. Deputies say 46-year-old Shawna Smith got into an argument with the victim around 8 p.m. Monday at her home on Kepner Drive in Holiday. At some point during the argument, deputies say Smith grabbed the victim from behind and threw her to the ground. The arrest report says Smith then started scratching the other woman. The victim suffered several scratches on her arm and neck, deputies say. According to the arrest report, Smith was previously...

The Ocala Police Department said a man who was magnet fishing found a Second World War-era hand grenade and then went to Taco Bell. The central Florida Taco Bell on East Silver Springs Blvd. was evacuated on Saturday after the man told police dispatchers he found the grenade and that it was inside the trunk of his vehicle parked at the fast-food restaurant.

Sheriff’s deputies say 38-year-old woman dropped her pants and danced half-naked in a Waffle House parking lot in Pensacola, Fla., Monday afternoon. Before doing that, the restaurant manager reported, she threatened to shoot everyone and, confronting him in the parking lot, tried to grab his genitals, according to an Escambia County Sheriff’s Office arrest affidavit. Then she leaned forward and licked the manager on both sides of his face. A witness in the parking lot corroborated the manager’s account. Freedom Ryder Zobrist, of Pensacola, was arrested on disorderly conduct, battery, assault and two counts of lewd and indecent exposure.

WEST PALM BEACH, FL (Gray News) – The Super Blood Wolf Moon was cool to look at, but looking at it while lying in a road landed a Florida man and woman in the hospital Sunday night. The unidentified pair were taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, according to The Palm Beach Post. Police described them as 24 years old and said they were alert and talking with officers at the hospital. An officer patrolling the Apoxee Wilderness trail at about 11:30 Sunday night ran over the two people with his 2018 Ford Explorer. That officer has reportedly been...

An elderly Florida man was arrested this week after allegedly following a driver towards his home and shooting at him in a bout of road rage, police said. Christino Aquino, 85, was detained on Wednesday evening after allegedly tailing a motorist in Marion Oaks, according to a Marion County Sheriff's Office (MCSO) release. The suspect was captured on the victim’s dash cam footage, which was later released to social media. The driver told deputies that he had noticed a “suspicious vehicle” that was flashing its lights in his rear mirror while he was driving home from work at approximately 6:30...

<p>WELLINGTON, Fla. (AP) - The Florida Board of Medicine says a West Palm Beach surgeon has agreed to pay a $3,000 fine for removing a woman's healthy kidney that he thought was a tumor.</p> <p>The Palm Beach Post reports Ramon Vazquez was responsible for cutting Maureen Pacheco open in 2016 so two other surgeons could perform a back operation.</p>

SARASOTA, Fla. (WFLA/NBC News) – Call her the “Party Pooper.” A Florida substitute teacher is accused of sabotaging a child’s birthday party by smearing human fecal matter on picnic tables and benches. Sarasota County deputies say Heather Carpenter had a problem with the way the principal at Phillippi Shores Elementary School handled a complaint, so she decided to get back at her by ruining the principal’s daughter’s birthday party at a nearby park. Michael Hutchinson witnessed the incident, and at first thought Carpenter was with park maintenance. “Once I got over here, I could smell it instantly and I knew...

CLEARWATER, Fla. (FOX 13) - Three syringes were found in a Pinellas County man’s rectum, which he claimed didn’t belong him, deputies said. A warrant was out for 40-year-old Wesley Dasher Scott on a drug charge, and deputies took him into custody on January 4 around 4:30 a.m. During his strip search, deputies with the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office said he removed three syringes from his rectum and handed it to them. Scott said he found them, and they weren’t his, deputies said. Additional drug charges were added during his arrest.