The March crime report for Lakeland included an angry woman wielding a golf club, drug users caught in minor traffic stops, someone using a car as a weapon after a fistfight and multiple burglaries and thefts, according to the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO).
Editor’s note: All suspects are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, and values are estimated for stolen/damaged items. These are brief summaries of detailed SCSO reports.
March 1
Glade Verde Lane (theft from motor vehicle)
A resident on the 3100 block of Glade Verde Lane reported that someone rummaged through his car’s glove compartment between 8:30 p.m. Feb. 28 and 8:30 a.m. March 1 while it was parked unlocked in his driveway. Nothing was taken.
El Hill Cove (forcible fondling)
A resident on El Hill Cove reported forcible fondling that occurred between Nov. 1, 2014, and March 1. No other information is publicly available.
U.S. 64 (theft from motor vehicle)
A man reported that someone broke into his Ford Edge while it was parked at LA Fitness (8864 U.S. 64) on March 1 from about 7 p.m. until 8 p.m. The passenger window was broken, and the only item stolen was a plaid backpack containing gym shorts and two sets of Apple earbuds.
March 2
U.S. 64 (theft from building)
A man reported that someone cut the lock off his locker while he was working out at LA Fitness (8864 U.S. 64) between noon and around 1:15 p.m. March 2.
His backpack was missing, and his clothing had been moved to the top of another locker. The backpack contained a wallet ($15), debit and credit cards, driver’s license, a checkbook, mail and a Cobra handgun ($500).
The victim shas canceled accounts associated with the stolen cards. He didn’t have the account numbers for the stolen cards/checks or the serial number for the handgun.
March 3
E. Davies Plantation Road (theft from motor vehicle)
A woman reported that someone broke into her car, a Pontiac G6, while it was parked at the rear of the Cracker Barrel restaurant at 9649 E. Davies Plantation Road.
She arrived for her shift around 11 a.m. March 3 and returned around 2:30 p.m. to find her black leather Michael Kors purse and its contents missing from the car trunk.
The car was unlocked, and she said someone probably used the trunk release lever on the driver’s side floor near the seat.
She said security cameras cover the parking lot, and her manager would burn a copy of the surveillance footage to a CD.
Someone used the victim’s debit card at a video rental kiosk at the Walmart superstore (8400 U.S. 64) at 1:59 p.m.
U.S. 64/Davies Plantation (felony weapon law violation)
A K-9 officer’s traffic stop at U.S. 64 and Davies Plantation on March 3 uncovered illegal drugs and a felon in possession of a firearm. The officer saw a black Mazda 3 with dark tinted windows headed east on U.S. 64 from Davies Plantation around 10:40 p.m., and he pulled the driver over. The officer smelled a strong odor of raw marijuana coming fromthe vehicle, but the driver denied smoking it.
The officer told him to get out of the car, and the driver admitted having three ounces of marijuana in the car’s center console.
The officer searched the car and found the marijuana in two clear bags. In the backseat, he also found a burgundy bag containing an unloaded black revolver and six .38 caliber rounds.
The driver said the gun was for protection and that he was a convicted felon with a previous felony narcotic charge in Jackson, Tenn. He waived his rights and admitted owning the marijuana and gun. A check of the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database turned up no results for the gun. A deputy took the driver to the Shelby County Jail.
March 4
U.S. 64 (business burglary)
A burglar made off with an empty cash register in a March 4 burglary of a business at 8950 U.S. 64. An officer responded to a felony vandalism complaint at 5:30 a.m. and found a window shattered on the north side of the building.
The manager played surveillance footage that showed a white man break the window with a crowbar, take the cash register and leave in a silver sedan. The license plate was not legible.
The manager said the cash is removed from the register after each shift.
U.S. 64/Canada Road (misdemeanor drugs/narcotics violation)
A traffic stop for failure to wear a seatbelt turned into drug charges for the driver of a red Ford Mustang on March 4. The car was headed west on U.S. 64 at 5:15 p.m. when an officer saw he was not wearing a seatbelt.
A check of his driver’s license showed it was suspended for failure to pay fines as of January. He also did not have car insurance. The officer searched the suspect and found a bulging jacket pocket containing a pipe and a bottle of marijuana. The driver said his employer’s wife gave it to him.
The officer cited the driver for driving with a suspended license, financial responsibility, possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia. He also received a courtesy citation for seatbelt violation, and his vehicle was towed. Testing later confirmed the bottle contained 1.7 grams of marijuana.
Kaki Lane (simple assault/domestic violence)
A neighbor on the 9400 block of Kaki Lane called the sheriff’s office around 9 p.m. March 4 when he saw a woman across the street chasing her boyfriend out of the garage, trying to hit him with a golf club. He said she fell, and the boyfriend pushed her back down and ran into the garage. The woman followed and tried to hit him again.
The officers saw multiple damaged items in the home, and the couple had minor injuries. Officers called a medical unit to the scene.
The woman appeared to be extremely intoxicated, and the man said she became enraged during an argument and began to destroy items. He said he grabbed a golf club to protect himself when she picked up a kitchen knife, but she never threatened him with it or tried to stab him. When he tried to knock the knife out of her hands with the club, she picked up another club and hit him with it multiple times. The man said he hit her right leg with the golf club while trying to hit the knife. He said she chased him into the garage and was swinging the golf club at him as he tried to leave.
The woman denied trying to hit her boyfriend with a golf club in the driveway and said she never had a knife.
Deputies found a broken kitchen knife in the living room, and the victim said it was the one she was holding.
March 5
Kingsridge Drive (residential burglary)
A failed burglary damaged appliances and a door at one home on the 9700 block of Kingsridge Drive on March 5. A neighbor noticed the door had been kicked in and called the home’s real estate agent around 3:30 p.m. The agent arrived around 4:10 p.m. to check the property. She found the stove had been moved into the garage, and someone had vandalized an upstairs window unit air conditioner while trying to remove it. It appeared that someone entered the house by breaking the knob off the back door and prying it open.
March 7
Chi Chi Lane (forcible sodomy)
Someone on the 9500 block of Chi Chi Lane reported a case of forcible sodomy between March 1 and March 7. No other information is publicly available in this case.
March 9
Canada Road (other theft/non-specific)
Someone took the city of Lakeland’s emblem off both sides of a sign ($500 each) at 4523 Canada Road between 3 p.m. March 6 and 8 a.m. March 8.
Barbary Coast/Herons Pond (felony vandalism)
A witness videotaped two cars digging ruts in a city park March 9 as one tried to pull the other out of the mud. Deputies arrived around 9:40 a.m. and reviewed the video.
One vehicle was a white Chevy Z71, and the other was a blue Chevy Tahoe. The video showed what appeared to be four males of unknown race or age. Deputies could not see the license plates. Damage is estimated at $1,000.
U.S. 64 (theft from motor vehicle)
A woman reported that someone broke into her Chevy Tahoe in the LA Fitness parking lot (8864 U.S. 64) between 11 a.m. and noon March 9. She found the driver’s side lock popped ($100) when she returned to her car. Someone stole her purse and her friend’s purse on the back seat. One contained a debit card, a credit card, Social Security cards for her little brothers and grandmother, $80 in cash and her green card. The other contained a Tennessee driver’s license, debit and credit cards, health insurance card, Mexican ID and $20 cash.
While deputies were on scene, one of the victims took a call from her father, who said one of the stolen cards had been used at the Fred’s in Arlington.
Davies Plantation East (misdemeanor vandalism)
Some broke the driver’s side window ($200) of a motor home parked behind Cracker Barrel restaurant (9649 Davies Plantation East) between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. March 9. Nothing was stolen, and officers could not lift prints from the scene.
The business has security cameras around the building, but none covered the parking spots for RVs.
U.S. 64 (embezzlement)
An employee at Zaxby’s (9104 U.S. 64) reported suspicions on March 9 that an employee had stolen more than $500 from a cashier’s drawer over several days.
The suspect had worked the drive-thru window as a cashier March 6-9, and the cashier’s drawer was short each night ($10.17 on March 6, $137.53 on March 7, $237.13 on March 8 and $179.21 on March 9), adding up to $564.04. No one reported seeing the suspect take the money, and there is no security camera in the drive-thru area. The complainant said there had not been any shortages until that employee started working the drive-thru.
The suspect denied taking the money and said she is not the only one who worked the cashier drawer. The owner fired her and banned her from all four local Zaxby’s locations.
March 10
Green Spruce Drive (theft from motor vehicle)
A resident on the 9700 block of green Spruce Drive found the driver’s side window broken on his Ford F250 the morning of March 10. He reported that someone had stolen his Luger semiautomatic gun from a holster on the side of the center console.
He said his neighbor’s security camera might provide evidence. He did not have the gun’s serial number for the NCIC database.
Maritime Drive (misdemeanor vandalism)
Deputies responded to an argument between Maritime Drive neighbors over a noisy TV and minor damage March 10. The victim said a mad neighbor visited to say his TV was too loud. He invited her inside, but when she began yelling he ordered her out. He said she slammed the door and damaged the weather stripping on the door frame ($10). He declined to prosecute.
March 11
Brandon Way (intimidation)
On March 11, a Lakeland mother reported previous death threats and ongoing verbal abuse from her son.
The mom, a resident on the 3000 block of Brandon Way, said her son texted her three weeks ago after an argument, saying he would kill her and them himself. She did not keep the message or report the threat.
Then on March 3, they were arguing when he got belligerent and said he didn’t need her money because he sold drugs, she told officers. She said he was verbally abusive but did not hit her.
The son denied using or selling drugs and said he and his mother argue because she is a controlling person who harasses him. Both parties refused to leave the home.
March 13
Champions Drive (identity theft)
A Champions Drive resident reported on March 13 that he tried to file his taxes using TurboTax software, but the company responded that someone had already filed a tax claim using his Social Security number.
March 14
Breckenridge Cove (aggravated assault)
An early morning argument between two longtime friends on March 14 turned into a fistfight and then assault with a car on the 9000 block of Breckenridge Cove.
A medical unit was already on scene when the responding officers arrived. The victim was bleeding and had facial abrasions, a split lip, red marks on his neck, and cuts to his arms and legs. He said it started with an argument, and then his friend told him to chill out, punched him and choked him until two female witnesses broke up the fight. The victim told the suspect to leave.
The suspect got into the driver’s seat of one witness’s Ford Mustang and the witness got into the passenger seat. The victim said the car was backing out but then drove up into the yard where the victim was walking. He tried to jump away, but the car hit his legs and threw him onto the hood and the windshield. He fell to the ground and called law enforcement. The other female witness backed up his account.
Officers got a description of the vehicle and the address where it was likely going, the car owner’s home on the 700 block of Beckett Ridge Cove, Collierville. Collierville officers located the couple and detained them until a deputy could arrive.
The victim was taken to the MED in stable condition.
U.S. 64 (felony drugs/narcotics violation)
Two deputies were on routine patrol just before 7 p.m. March 14, headed west on U.S. 64 in a marked squad car when they saw an eastbound suspect speeding 68 mph in a 55 mph zone.
They pulled the driver over into the parking lot of Tractor Supply Company (9715 U.S. 64) and found that his driver’s license had been suspended Feb. 14 for accumulation of convictions. He consented to a vehicle search, and officers found a small maroon plastic box containing four pills that appeared to be acetaminophen/oxycodone hydrochloride or just oxycodone hydrochloride. The driver didn’t have a prescription for these Schedule II narcotics.
A deputy then spotted three folded pieces of paper in the car’s dashboard change holder, and each paper held a small amount of an unknown white powder.
One of the deputies also found a .40 caliber Smith and Wesson M&P pistol loaded with a 15-round magazine in the front driver side seat (no rounds in the chamber) and a loaded .40 caliber 15-round Smith and Wesson pistol magazine in the driver’s side door.
The driver signed a tow option and released his car to his grandfather on the scene.
The four pills were later confirmed as oxycodone with a total net weight of 1.253 grams. The white powder tested positive for codeine, also a Schedule II narcotic, and the driver did not have a prescription for it, either; it had a total net weight of 3.5 grams.
The suspect was jailed for speeding, driving with a suspended/revoked/canceled license, and possession of two controlled substances with intent to distribute.
March 15
U.S. 64 (misdemeanor drugs/narcotics violation)
Officers were in the front parking lot of LA Fitness (8864 U.S. 64) March 15 when they heard a car alarm go off around 3:30 p.m. They approached the vehicle, a tan Chevrolet Tahoe, and spotted a black male in the driver’s seat, struggling with an object near the steering column.
Officers confirmed the man was the vehicle’s owner, but they also noticed a strong smell of marijuana from inside the car. He denied having any and let them search the Tahoe. The officers found a clear baggie containing a green leafy substance on the backseat floorboard, on the passenger side. The substance later tested positive as 2.8 grams of marijuana.
Triumph Circle (motor vehicle theft of a passenger vehicle)
An apartment resident on the 9300 block of Triumph Circle was the victim of auto theft sometime between 7:30 p.m. March 13 and 10:45 p.m. March 15.
He had parked his Chrysler Crossfire on the northeast parking lot before leaving town and noticed his car was missing when he returned. He said he could not locate his keys and might have dropped them nearby. A dispatcher entered the car’s information into the NCIC registry.
March 16
Brandon Way (simple assault / domestic violence)
A man got into a fight with his girlfriend’s son and ended up getting punched on March 16. The man lives on the 3000 block of Brandon way with his girlfriend and the son.
The man said it began with the son arguing with his mother about her refusal to give him a ride. The man spoke up about the son’s behavior the previous night, and the son got irate and started yelling. The man said he turned to walk away and the son attacked him from behind, hitting the back of his head and then around his face.
The responding officers saw bruising on the man’s left cheek and forehead, as well as a swollen area on the back of his head. The girlfriend witnessed the fight and backed up the man’s version of events.
The son refused to explain the incident to officers except for stating that his mother and her boyfriend were nagging him. The son told officers that, if he could press a button and die, he would do it.
Officers took the son into custody and transported him to the Shelby County Jail. One of the officers took photos of the victim’s wounds, and the victim was treated on site for his injuries.
March 17
Woodland Elm Court (residential burglary)
A real estate agent for Regions Bank discovered that someone had stolen a cooking range from a home on the 10000 block of Woodland Elm Court during the period of March 11-14. The agent said someone removed the door’s keybox and apparently entered the home with a key. The crime was reported to the SCSO on March 17.
No make, model or serial number were available for the stolen item. Officers noted that there was no workable crime scene because of the lack of forced entry, the delayed reporting of the incident and the contamination of the home’s doorknobs by the real estate agent during multiple home showings between March 14 and March 17.
March 18
Champions Drive (simple assault / domestic violence)
A man reported that his live-in girlfriend attacked him around 2:30 a.m. March 18 in a dispute over another man’s name showing up in her cell phone.
He said she had just returned home with a group of friends and was very drunk. They argued about her being gone for about five hours without calling. When they went inside, the boyfriend noticed the other guy’s name on her phone. He asked who the man was, and she told him it didn’t matter. The boyfriend said he took the phone out of her purse and tried to leave the apartment, but she grabbed the hood of his sweatshirt and pulled him back inside, trying to retrieve her phone.
She punched and kicked him until he locked himself in the bathroom, and then he ran downstairs to another apartment to seek help, the victim reported. He told officers she left on foot in an unknown direction. He had a small scratch on his right pinky finger, but he refused medical treatment. Officers were not immediately able to locate the suspect to get her statement.
Pleasant Ridge (other theft / non-specific)
A mobile home owner on the 9400 block of Pleasant Ridge Road said someone looted the home between March 6 and March 18. He has been renovating the mobile home for the past two years.
Items stolen included a central air conditioner removed from the yard, as well as a Sears exercise bike and a True Temper tool. The responding officer observed that the mobile home was vacant, wide open and unlivable.
March 19
Longbridge Lane (residential burglary)
Someone stole a microwave but failed to make off with other appliances installed at a home on the 3100 block of Longbridge Lane. The owner is trying to sell the house and said her real estate agent found the back door had been forced open. The crime occurred sometime between 3:45 p.m. March 19 and 11 a.m. March 19.
The homeowner also found that her Samsung fridge and her Magic Chef stove were pulled out of position but not stolen. No other items were taken, and she did not know any suspects.
During the investigation, an officer lifted what appeared to be a fingerprint from the stove.
Woodland Grove Drive (simple assault)
A mother who lives on the 10000 block of Woodland Grove reported on March 19 that a black male youth had attacked her son around 3:15 p.m. the previous day, and the responding officer noticed minor swelling on the victim’s jaw.
The victim’s brother witnessed the event. The brothers said several male and female black youths rang the doorbell, trying to get them to come outside where the attacker, a Bolton High School student, was making threats. The boys stepped outside and told the group to leave, and the fight began.
One of the visitors was filming the incident with a cell phone, and the brothers located the video on Instagram and showed it to the responding officer. The video showed a black male punch the victim in the face in his front yard, and the fight continued.
The brothers said the fight was about a girl the victim’s brother had talked to.
Trotter Drive (misdemeanor vandalism)
A resident on the 9500 block of Trotter Drive reported that someone damaged her garage door and broke a window on the rear of the garage sometime between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. March 19. She notified the SCSO when her home alarm went off.
Nothing appeared to be stolen from the home.
March 20
Davis Plantation (theft from motor vehicle)
A parent reported that someone stole items from her car while she was dropping her son off at Learning Tree Daycare (9667 Davies Plantation Road) around 10:15 a.m. March 20.
The car was not locked, and the victim didn’t notice the theft until she got to a fast food restaurant. Items stolen included her FirstTennessee bank card, Tennessee driver’s license and an Android cell phone. The victim could not immediately provide card account numbers or the phone’s serial number.
When she reported the bank card theft, she learned that someone had already used it at a gas station on Stage Road and was trying to use it at an Office Depot store (2863 Wolfcreek Parkway), where the store denied a suspect’s three attempts to purchase a laptop.
A source at Office Depot said the suspect was a black female in her mid-30s, wearing a green shirt and dark pants. A video from Target next door showed the woman leaving Office Depot and getting into a silver car, possibly an Accura or Honda, with a sunroof.
March 21
Chapel Hill Road (theft of other trailer)
Someone stole a utility trailer and a four-wheeler from the driveway of a Chapel Hill Road home between March 17 and March 21 while the owner was out of town.
The black 5-by-10-foot M&M utility trailer was black and had an Arkansas license plate and distinctive custom welding to create a canopy over the base. It had a hitch lock that was not secured to anything, and it was loaded with the Honda TRX450FE four-wheeler.
The owner could not immediately provide the vehicle identification number (VIN) for the four-wheeler but did so for the trailer.
A sheriff’s dispatcher added the trailer information to the NCIC database.
March 22
Blue Spruce Circle / White Spruce Drive (felony drugs/narcotics violation)
An officer spotted a a white Honda Accord running without lights on Green Spruce Street around 2:30 a.m. March 22, and he stopped it at the intersection of Blue Spruce Circle and White Spruce Drive. The two passengers were making furtive movements in the front seat and dipping down lower in the seat.
The vehicle was not listed on NCIC, and the driver had a valid Tennessee driver’s license. The officer asked why he was so nervous and told him to get out of the car. A patdown revealed the driver had a small folding knife in his front pocket and a digital scale in the front cargo pocket of his pants. A search of the vehicle’s front seat didn’t uncover any drugs, but officers found three small bags of a white crystallized substance in the driver’s socks. He admitted it was methamphetamine.
The officers took the driver to the Shelby County Jail for booking/processing, and the car was towed. The substance later tested positive as 2.0 grams of meth.
Conifer View Lane (simple assault / domestic violence)
A man said he was talking to his stepdaughter about manners around 4 p.m. March 22 when his wife assaulted him.
Officers responded to the home on the 5200 block of Conifer View Lane, and the victim said the incident began when he was talking to his stepdaughter about finishing chores, and she disrespectfully walked away as he was speaking. He clasped the hood of her sweatshirt and told her to stop and look at him while he was speaking to her. When the daughter yelled, her mother came in, yelled at her husband, hit his head and upper body, kneed him in the groin several times and threatened to kill him in his sleep.
The victim said he had to pick up their small child to stop his wife from continuing to assault him.
The stepdaughter’s version of events matched the victim’s. The wife admitted assaulting her husband, and officers took her into custody and transported her to Shelby County Jail East on domestic assault charges.
Houston Levee Road (misdemeanor drugs/narcotics violation)
A traffic stop for dark-tinted windows led to a drug bust on U.S. 64 on March 22. Deputies were on routine patrol in marked squad cars around 6 p.m. when the saw a silver 2004 Chevrolet Malibu traveling eastbound with window tint that appeared to be too dark.
During the stop, the deputies smelled a strong odor of marijuana coming from inside the vehicle, so they detained the driver and his front-seat passenger. A search turned up two small plastic bags containing a green leafy substance in the car’s front center console, and the driver said they belonged to him.
One of the deputies used an SCSO-issued window tint meter to determine the window tint was 22 percent (Tennessee law does not permit the tint to be less than 35 percent).
The driver received a misdemeanor citation for possession of a controlled substance and window tint. Deputies took the passenger to Shelby County Jail on felony warrants.
Later testing confirmed that the baggie’s contents were 4.1 grams total net weight of marijuana.
March 23
Interstate 40/Canada Road (felony weapon law violations)
When a driver made an illegal turn off Canada Road to the Interstate 40 eastbound ramp around 5 a.m. March 23, an observant officer pulled him over and then noticed the driver was nervous and sweating and had pulled up over the curb.
He told the driver to get out of the car, which was filled with small bags and boxes. The driver complied but said he could not produce his registration because it was in the car’s trunk. He consented to a car search.
During the search, the officer located a Texas Department of Criminal Justice Document from Victoria District Parole Office. When questioned, the driver said he had served two years in a Texas state prison, had recently retired and was moving from Texas to North Carolina. He admitted having a .40 caliber handgun a friend gave him for protection.
The officer found the unloaded Smith & Wesson handgun in a bag in the car’s trunk, and he also found two magazines (one with 14 bullets and the other with five bullets).
A background check revealed that the driver was a convicted felon, from a 1999 child assault case in San Antonio, Texas. He was sentenced to 10 years of probation but violated it and served the remaining two years of his sentence in a Texas state prison. He was released on June 20, 2014.
The driver’s car was towed from the scene.
Maritime Drive (intimidation)
A mother reported that she had just returned home from dropping off her children at school the morning of March 23 when a suspect pulled up behind her in the driveway, got out and leaned on her driver’s door so she could not exit.
She said he began to bang on the car door window, used derogatory sexual terms to describe her and said, “Your husband needs to bash your head in, and if he can’t do it I can do it for him.”
The suspect was the previous owner of the woman’s home on the 9800 block of Maritime Drive. She said the only reason he was there was to pick up his mail that he will not have forwarded to another address.
The victim said she and her children are scared of him.
March 24
U.S. 64 (counterfeiting/forgery)
A server at the Sonic drive-in (9696 U.S. 64) delivered two slushy drinks to the occupants of a Dodge Avenger the afternoon of March 24 and received a suspicious $100 bill for payment.
The car’s occupants were all black and included a male driver, a female passenger and two male passengers. She took the bill but told them she had to take the bill inside to determine whether it was genuine. The suspects fled westbound on U.S. 64 when she went into the restaurant.
An iodine counterfeiting pen indicated the bill was genuine, but the manager thought it looked fake and called law enforcement.
The responding officer said the bill looked to be a counterfeit. The bill lacked color-shifting ink, proper watermarks, clarity of printed borders and treasury seal, microprinting and a security thread reading “100 ASU.”
The bill had serial number FH 4985566.
March 26
Pheasant Hill Cove North (residential burglary)
A Lakeland woman returned from work around 6 p.m. March 26 and returned to find most of her jewelry was missing.
Items stolen included a necklace and earrings that were on top of the jewelry cabinet, all of the cabinet’s contents except for two hidden side compartments, and a small leopard-printed bag containing her costume jewelry.
Responding officers found a rear door that appeared to have been pried open, and the woman said she hadn’t used the deadbolt there.
March 28
Tennessee 385 / Stewart Road (misdemeanor drugs/narcotics violation)
An officer spotted a driver weaving from lane to lane on Tennessee 385 at 3:48 a.m. March 28, driving 35 mph in a 65 mph zone, so the officer pulled him over.
Before a pat search, the suspect said he had a bag of marijuana on him, and the officer also found a switchblade in the man’s left pocket. The driver gave permission for a car search and admitted to smoking a blunt (a cigar hollowed out and filled with marijuana) an hour previously.
He was tested and showed no signs of impairment.
Testing confirmed the substance in the baggie 4.4 total gram weight of marijuana. The officer disposed of the switchblade on the scene. The driver received a misdemeanor citation and had his car towed.
March 29
Canada Road (simple assault / domestic violence)
An argument turned into a physical fight for a couple at the Relax Inn (3645 Canada Road) around 1 a.m. March 29. Both had been drinking, and the woman said she could not recall the topic of the argument.
She said he slapped her on the left cheek and she somehow injured her upper left arm. The responding officers observed swelling and a small amount of blood above the woman’s left eye, and she had her left arm in a sling.
Medical personnel on scene said she might have a dislocated left shoulder. She was transported to Saint Francis Hospital in Bartlett for medical care.
Officers determined the man was the primary aggressor. They also recovered two small pocket knives and one fixed-blade knife from him.
The woman said the couple had been living together for about a year.
Canada Road (aggravated assault)
A driver waved a gun at the Factory Outlet Mall’s property manager when he tried to document two Jeeps trespassing on and damaging the property around 5 p.m. March 29.
The manager said an unknown man called him to report the intruders who had arrived while he was giving his daughter driving lessons in the parking lot. The man witnessed the vehicles doing donuts in the grass (driving in circles, tearing up the surface).
The manager arrived on scene, spoke briefly with the caller and saw a black Jeep and a white Jeep, both driven by black males, circling in the grass.
The manager tried to get the vehicles’ license plate numbers, but when he raised his cellphone the driver of the white Jeep brandished a handgun directly at him. Both vehicles then drove away, and the manager then called the SCSO.
He could not provide any details on the weapon, and the responding officer could not find any surveillance equipment for the area.
The officer also could not contact the caller who initially reported the two trespassers.
March 30
Falcon Hill Drive (residential burglary)
Someone broke into a home on the 9300 block of Falcon Hill Drive between March 28 and March 30, a real estate agent for ERA Legacy Realty reported.
The agent said the home is unoccupied and is undergoing some work. The only item stolen was a Whirlpool range ($460), and there was no forced entry into the residence.
