CLERMONT, Florida—A Eustis man accused a fleeing a Clermont Police officer on a traffic stop, running on foot and tossing a backpack full of drugs is facing numerous charges and is being held on no bond for failure to appear in court in a neighboring county.
According to an arrest affidavit, a sergeant with Clermont Police Department attempted to stop a silver Infiniti for an expired tag shortly before 7 p.m. Thursday on U.S. Highway 27 near Johns Lake Road.
The Infiniti turned onto Johns Lake Road and into the parking lot of Lake Felter Park, 1750 Johns Lake Road, slowed and turned sideways. The sergeant exited his vehicle and the driver, later identified as Darnell Lanier Hill, 27, of Eustis, looked directly at the sergeant, put his hands up and sped through the parking lot while dozens of people, including children, were at the park, according to the affidavit.
Hill left the park and turned onto Johns Lake Road and CPD did not pursue the Infiniti, the affidavit states. Six minutes later, another CPD officer spotted the cat at State Road 50 and Magnolia Point Boulevard. The officer activated his lights and approached the Infiniti and Hill jumped out the car with a black backpack and fled on foot, the affidavit states.
CPD pursued Hill on foot, and he tossed the backpack and ran up the exterior staircase of a building located at 17320 State Road 50, Clermont and CPD established a perimeter around the building. A citizen and their son reported seeing Hill throw the backpack and officers found it under a truck.
About 12 minutes later, Hill exited the building and began vomiting. He was taken into custody and officers searched the backpack and found a cache of drugs. Inside the backpack, officers found a loaded 9mm handgun, four large bags of drugs, a scale and numerous small empty baggies, commonly used for the sale of narcotics, according to the affidavit.
Two bags of a crystal substance weighing a total of 677.5 grams were field-tested and found to be methamphetamine, a bag with pink powdered substance and a bag with a white powdered substance were found to be cocaine and weighed a total of 73.3 grams, according to the affidavit.
CPD searched the Infiniti and found three cell phones, a scale, $994 cash and multiple bags of marijuana weighing 88.6 grams. Hill has a revoked driver license for fleeing and eluding and a warrant out of Citrus County for failure to appear for armed burglary, according to the affidavit.
Hill was arrested for armed trafficking of methamphetamine, armed trafficking of cocaine, possession of marijuana with intent to sell, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession of ammunition by a convicted felon, flee to elude, resisting without violence, possession of drug paraphernalia and driving while license revoked. He was transported to LCJ, where he is being held on $199,500 bond for the current charges and he has a detainer (no bond) regarding the failure to appear warrant in Citrus County.
