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article <\/p>\n article <\/p>\n
Courtesy: Florida Highway Patrol <\/p>\n
TAMPA, Fla. – The Florida<\/a> Highway Patrol says a Sarasota felon is facing multiple charges after he fled a traffic stop on Interstate 275, before the pursuit ended with troopers deploying a taser on him at the International Plaza and Bay Street mall parking lot.<\/p>\n The backstory:<\/p>\n On Friday shortly before 5:30 p.m., a trooper was on northbound I-275 near the Tampa International Airport<\/a> exit when he saw a sedan pass traffic using the inside shoulder of the road, according to FHP.<\/p>\n MORE NEWS: Driver involved in Hillsborough crash accused of stealing gold chain from victim, threatening with bat<\/a><\/p>\n The trooper activated lights and sirens for a traffic stop, but the driver did not pull over. Instead, troopers say he stuck his hand out of the window and raised his middle finger at the trooper while continuing north toward the State Road 60 West exit.<\/p>\n The trooper ordered the suspect out of his vehicle at gunpoint after he eventually stopped in traffic. As the trooper got out of his vehicle, a gap in traffic opened and the driver fled onto State Road 60, FHP said.<\/p>\n According to FHP, an off-duty sergeant with the Pinellas County<\/a> Sheriff’s Office followed the vehicle to the International Plaza and Bay Street mall, where it stopped in the parking lot near Nordstrom Rack.<\/p>\n Troopers say the driver, identified as Demarcus Wilder, 33, got out of the car and began walking toward the mall. When a trooper told Wilder to get on the ground, the felon ignored him and continued walking toward the trooper. The trooper deployed a taser, and Wilder was taken into custody.<\/p>\n During a search of the vehicle, troopers found a loaded semi-automatic firearm with additional ammunition. A background check revealed Wilder is a convicted felon, FHP said.<\/p>\n Dig deeper:<\/p>\n Wilder was taken to the Hillsborough County<\/a> Jail, where troopers began a DUI investigation.<\/p>\n According to FHP, Wilder had bloodshot eyes, a short attention span and appeared confused during the tests. Troopers say he was unsteady on his feet and showed multiple signs of impairment during the field sobriety exercises, including struggling to keep his balance and missing steps.<\/p>\n Breath tests at the jail showed Wilder had no alcohol in his system. Troopers suspected possible drug impairment and requested a urine sample, which Wilder eventually provided. He refused to participate in a Drug Recognition Expert evaluation, troopers said.<\/p>\n Wilder faces the following charges:<\/p>\n Fleeing and attempting to elude a law enforcement officerPossession of a firearm by a convicted felon (two counts)DUIResisting an officer without violence <\/p>\n The Source: Information for this story was provided by the Florida Highway Patrol.<\/p>\n Tampa<\/a>Crime and Public Safety<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"article Courtesy: Florida Highway Patrol TAMPA, Fla. – The Florida Highway Patrol says a Sarasota felon is facing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[630,47,629,115,135,137,136,628],"class_list":["post-155748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-crime-publicsafety","tag-fl","tag-hillsborough","tag-news","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155748","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=155748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}