Oops! Seminole Deputies Flatten Tires on Wrong Cars

source: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/seminole/orl-mistake2607oct26,0,7860010.story

Oops! Seminole deputies flatten tires on wrong cars

Rene Stutzman |Sentinel Staff Writer
(published) October 26, 2007

Seminole County deputies blew out the tires of two cars Thursday while trying to stop a vehicle they thought was stolen. Neither, however, was the vehicle they were targeting.

Deputies were trying to stop a silver Ford Mustang that had roared away from a traffic stop about 1:30 a.m., according to the agency. Instead, about a half-hour later, they nailed a silver Dodge Charger and a dark-blue Honda.

The driver of the Charger, Calvin N. Bryant, 25, a music producer from Jacksonville, was furious. When deputies learned he had a gun inside the vehicle, three of them pointed their weapons at him and hauled him out through the driver's window, he said.

He and his girlfriend, Kimberly Paige, 23, of Orange Park, were handcuffed. That left her 1-year-old son in the car, crying, she said.

"We were not doing anything improper," Paige said. They were on vacation, she said, headed to Orlando for a long weekend.

Bryant had a permit to carry the .357-caliber Glock, and deputies uncuffed him at the scene and returned his gun. Still, he was angry about the whole thing Thursday afternoon, 12 hours later.

According to the Sheriff's Office report, Bryant was "not compliant at times" and "was guided" out of his vehicle and cuffed after he told deputies he had a gun and a permit.

No one was hurt in the 2 a.m. incident, although both cars were driving at highway speed on State Road 417 near Aloma Avenue when they hit spiked sticks that deputies had placed on the pavement.

The sticks ruined both front tires on the Charger. They destroyed both tires on the driver's side of the Honda, said Geoffrey Blatchly, 54, of Oviedo, who was at the wheel.

He was on his way to work at a cement plant when he hit the sticks at about 70 mph, he said.

Blatchly, who was not carrying a gun, was not handcuffed. An officer drove him to work, and the Sheriff's Office promised to replace all four of his tires, he said.

The Sheriff's Office also was working to replace the tires on Bryant's Charger.

The Mustang? It got away.

Rene Stutzman can be reached at rstutzman@orlandosentinel.com