TAVARES, Florida—A Tavares man who attempted to steal a Tavares Police car Monday morning was quickly tased by a TPD officer while he was sitting in the driver’s seat and taken into custody, according to an arrest affidavit.
TPD responded to Ace Hardware, 509 South Duncan Drive around 6:15 a.m. Monday on a report of a suspicious person and found John Fulbright Jr., 42, of Tavares, who immediately blurted out, “Take me to jail, I did it all,” the affidavit states.
When an officer asked Fulbright to elaborate, he reportedly told the officer he stole a vehicle, stole several items from Circle K a few blocks away and was loitering at Ace Hardware, while a second officer went to investigate a heavily damaged vehicle nearby, according to the affidavit.
While speaking with the officer, Fulbright claimed he could not breathe, admitted ingesting methamphetamines and asked for water. When the second officer returned from investigating the damaged vehicle, the first officer went to his patrol car to get water. Shortly after, he heard Fulbright scream and found a freshly-tased Fulbright in the driver’s seat of the second officer’s patrol car.
Fulbright was taken into custody and handcuffed, and the second officer advised she was questioning Fulbright about the heavily-damaged Honda SUV he crashed, and he said, “I just stole it, like I’m about to steal yours,” and ran over to the officer’s car, jumped in driver’s seat and attempted to drive away. The officer deployed her taser and was able to stop Fulbright, according to the affidavit.
Tavares Fire Department and Lake EMS arrived on scene and removed the taser probes from Fulbright and upon searching him, officers found a syringe with a brown residue in his left pocket. The residue was not enough to test, the officer noted.
Fulbright told officers he stole the SUV from his “baby mama” and they determined he stole it from a residence on Rosewood Lane, where he was staying on the back porch. He said he crashed the blue SUV into a tree, causing approximately $6,000 in damages.
Fulbright was arrested for burglary of an authorized emergency vehicle, resisting arrest without violence, criminal mischief, grand theft auto and possession of paraphernalia. He transported to the Lake County Jail, where he was tased again for resisting with violence, and is being held on $11,000 bond.
