{"id":190647,"date":"2026-03-13T20:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T20:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/190647\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T20:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T20:26:08","slug":"armed-man-fires-from-truck-sparks-multi-city-florida-chase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/190647\/","title":{"rendered":"Armed man fires from truck, sparks multi-city Florida chase"},"content":{"rendered":"

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 A man claiming the sheriff was kidnapped was jailed after firing a 9mm pistol from his truck while leading deputies on a multi-city chase.<\/p>\n

The incident began around 8:21 p.m. on Monday when Sebastian Police<\/a> responded to reports of shots fired near Riverview Park<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Witnesses told officers they heard three gunshots coming from the area of US Highway 1 and Harridson Street. One witness told officers she heard the gunshot near the No Name Sports Bar and Grill<\/a> and saw a truck speeding away and honking.<\/p>\n

As police investigated, more calls poured out reporting similar incidents.<\/p>\n

See also: Florida woman admits to being high on meth when she struck and killed an 8-year-old<\/a><\/p>\n

One caller allegedly said a man, later identified as Mark Patrick Spero, pulled up to his home on Fleming Street and told him the “Sheriff had been kidnapped.” Witnesses at a nearby gas station reported that the man drove past, shouting that he had “discharged a firearm” because a deputy was in danger.<\/p>\n

Ring doorbell footage captured at one location showed a man with a pistol in a holster on his hip, yelling that a law enforcement officer had been taken.<\/p>\n

The suspect’s vehicle, a silver Toyota Tacoma, was eventually spotted by Melbourne Beach Police<\/a>, according to the criminal probable cause affidavit.<\/p>\n

After a brief pursuit, Indian River County deputies intercepted Spero in the 14000 block of SR-A1A. <\/p>\n

During the high-risk stop, Spero was taken into custody without incident, and deputies later found four spent 9mm shell casings in plain view on the driver’s seat and floorboard.<\/p>\n

Spero told investigators that he believed he was being followed by “blacked out cars,” and was trying to get the attention of law enforcement, claiming a deputy had been “kidnapped or killed,” which prompted his erratic behaviour and attempt to get pulled over.<\/p>\n

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Deputies found probable cause to book Spero for two counts of unlawful discharge of a firearm from a vehicle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INDIAN RIVER COUNTY, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 A man claiming the sheriff was kidnapped was jailed after firing a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190648,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-190647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190647","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=190647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}