POLK COUNTY, Fla. – What started as a traffic violation just before midnight on Tuesday, October 21st, quickly escalated into a foot chase that ended abruptly—and painfully—with a suspect meeting a chain-link fence.
A white Ford F-150 failed to obey a stop sign at the intersection of 4th Street East and Rifle Range Road in Wahneta, prompting a traffic stop by a patrolling deputy. During the initial interaction, the deputy’s attention was drawn to a passenger behaving in a suspiciously nervous manner.
That nervousness soon turned into a sprint.
Shortly after, the passenger bolted from the truck and took off running, with deputies close behind. The pursuit lasted only about 100 yards before reaching an unexpected conclusion: the fleeing man crashed directly into a sturdy chain-link fence, bringing his attempted getaway to a sudden, jarring halt.
READ: Ruskin Man Arrested For ‘Glock And A Bomb’ Swatting Incident In The Florida Keys
After his apprehension, the suspect initially attempted to deceive deputies by providing a false name. He was eventually identified as 28-year-old Edward Francisco Monroy Hernandez from Mexico. Deputies confirmed that Hernandez was in the United States illegally.
Hernandez was arrested and transported to the Sheriff’s Processing Center. He now faces charges of Providing False ID to LEO and Resisting without Violence. Due to his status as an illegal immigrant, his charges have been upgraded one degree.
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