TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Sheriff's Office: Driver Tasered After Ramming Deputy

ADVERTISEMENT

By HOWARD ALTMAN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 26, 2008

Lonnie Watts

Lonnie Watts didn't want to go to jail, so used his car to strike one of the deputies trying to arrest him on a drug paraphernalia warrant early Friday morning, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office said.

He stopped the car after being hit with a deputy's Taser, according to an affidavit.

Deputy Matthew McMurphy was cut on the right arm, sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said.

Watts, 22, was sitting in the back seat of his white Buick, which was parked at the Circle K on Trapnell Road in Plant City about 12:20 a.m., when deputies approached him with a warrant for his arrest, deputies said. He got in the front seat, put the car in "drive" and then hit the deputy, deputies said. Watts stopped after Deputy Desirae Penrose zapped him with a Taser "numerous times until he vacated the driver's seat into the passenger seat," the sheriff's office said.

Watts, of 2418 N. Rome Ave., Tampa, is listed in jail records as an iron worker. He was arrested and charged with aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer, resisting arrest with violence and resisting arrest without violence. He is being held at the Orient Road Jail. Bail is set at $23,000.

Editor Howard Altman can be reached at (813) 259-7629 or haltman@tampatrib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT