{"id":121210,"date":"2026-01-16T22:54:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T22:54:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/121210\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T22:54:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T22:54:06","slug":"retail-theft-incident-in-martin-county-escalates-when-suspect-threatens-self-harm-with-makeshift-device","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/121210\/","title":{"rendered":"Retail theft incident in Martin County escalates when suspect threatens self-harm with makeshift device"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">Deputies said a retail theft call in Martin County turned dangerous when a suspect barricaded himself in a restaurant bathroom and threatened to harm himself with a homemade device.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Hugh Alexander Okoye, 36, a transient from West Palm Beach, was initially caught stealing merchandise at a Publix grocery store, the Martin County Sheriff&#8217;s Office said. However, after causing a disturbance at the store, Okoye left and entered a nearby Panera Bread.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Inside the restaurant, Okoye&#8217;s behavior became increasingly alarming, deputies said, when he locked himself inside a bathroom stall and resisted deputies&#8217; commands. Investigators said during the incident, Okoye placed a makeshift device containing a shotgun shell inside brass tubing into his mouth and attempted to ignite it with a lighter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Deputies said they detained Okoye, who attempted to spit on authorities during his arrest. They also secured the device containing the shotgun slug.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">He was booked into the Martin County Jail.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Okoye faces numerous charges including petit theft, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2026 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Deputies said a retail theft call in Martin County turned dangerous when a suspect barricaded himself in a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[60583,60585,60584,20339,171,173,172],"class_list":["post-121210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-mother-accused-of-killing-sons","tag-mother-charged-in-sons-deaths","tag-mother-charged-with-murder","tag-new-jersey","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}