{"id":167475,"date":"2026-02-24T21:19:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T21:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/167475\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T21:19:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T21:19:07","slug":"i-am-a-prophet-central-florida-man-caught-destroying-chinese-restaurant-to-stop-covid-deputies-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/167475\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I am a prophet:\u2019 Central Florida man caught destroying Chinese restaurant to stop COVID, deputies say"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. \u2013 An Orlando man was arrested on Monday after a bizarre attack on a Chinese restaurant, according to the Orange County Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">In an arrest affidavit, deputies said they responded to Pearl\u2019s Chinese Restaurant along Central Florida Parkway on Monday afternoon after a 911 caller reported the attack.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Upon arrival, they learned that the man \u2014 identified as Richard Jarvis, 43 \u2014 had come to the restaurant and threatened to kill everyone inside before entering through the front door.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">From there, deputies explained that Jarvis made his way into the kitchen, tossing and destroying over $4,000 worth of food and cooking instruments.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">The owner tried to run away, but Jarvis struck him in the back with a shovel, telling the owner, \u201cIf you run away, I\u2019ll kill you,\u201d the affidavit states.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Deputies said they soon found Jarvis in the kitchen, armed with a shovel and shouting that \u201che had to destroy the food because all the Chinese were poisoning the food.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Eventually, though, deputies managed to de-escalate the situation and took Jarvis into custody. <\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">According to investigators, Jarvis said while being transported, \u201cI had to destroy that restaurant. All Chinese restaurants are going to release a new strain of COVID on July 6. I am a prophet; I\u2019m trying to save everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Now, Jarvis faces charges of assault, aggravated battery with a weapon, burglary, and criminal mischief. He is held without bond.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">You can read through the full affidavit below:<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. \u2013 An Orlando man was arrested on Monday after a bizarre attack on a Chinese&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[265,1335,139,141,140,2546],"class_list":["post-167475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-crime","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-strange-florida"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167475","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=167475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}