UMATILLA, Fla.—A report of a gunshot victim Tuesday night in Umatilla was a false alarm, according to a Umatilla Police Department report.
UPD responded to Circle K, 391 North Central Avenue to meet the purported victim, Dana Waltrip shortly before 8:30 p.m. Tuesday night. Waltrip arrived at the gas station shortly after a UPD officer and appeared “unsteady” and had a bloodstain on the right shoulder area of his shirt. Waltrip said he did not know what had happened to him and the officer asked him if he had been shot.
Waltrip showed the officer the back of his head and the officer observed a “round wound with blood and unidentified matter protruding out,” according to the report, UPD asked him what happened, who did it and where it happened. Waltrip did not answer the officer’s questions, but said, he was at “the Altoona store” and was headed to the hospital when he stopped at the Southside Plaza on the south end of Umatilla and then traveled to Circle K where he met UPD.
Waltrip was “reluctant” be transported for his wound, but agreed after the wound was explained to him, the report states. He was transported to a field near Umatilla Fire Department and was again “reluctant “to be transported for treatment. EMS believed the wound was from a gunshot and convinced Waltrip to get treatment, according to the report, and Waltrip was airlifted to an area hospital.
UPD went to Circle K, 42404 State Road 19, Altoona to gather information but was unsuccessful, while Lake County Sheriff’s Office Crime Scene Investigations, detectives and a K9 unit responded to Southside Plaza to search for evidence. They were also unsuccessful, according to the report.
Around 11 p.m. LCSO supervisors advised UPD hospital staff called and said Waltrip was not shot and had only suffered a small abrasion, and a CT scan confirmed there was not a bullet in Waltrip’s head. Waltrip refused to speak with detectives about the incident, and at press time, UPD was unable to confirm if a crime had been committed.
