FWC Law Enforcement Report

November 9, 2015

The Florida FWC Division of Law Enforcement reported the following activity during the weekly period ending November 5 in  Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.

SANTA ROSA  COUNTY

K-9 Officer Pineda and Officer Clark were patrolling the Yellow River WMA looking for hunters hunting over illegally baited areas.  They came to an area where a vehicle had been parked recently and deployed K-9 Kane to ascertain where the occupants of the vehicle may have gone.  K-9 Kane tracked from where the vehicle was parked to two freshly baited areas. One of the spots had a ground blind and the other had a climbing tree stand on it. The officers checked the area several times and two days later observed a vehicle parked in the area. They split up and located two subjects, as well as, a third baited site. The subjects stated that they distributed the bait (corn) out onto the WMA a few days before. They also stated that they had been knowingly hunting over bait at these three spots several times since the opening of archery.  Both subjects were charged with hunting/ distributing bait on a WMA.

While on patrol, Officer Miller heard the Florida Highway Patrol was in pursuit of a truck pulling a stolen trailer nearby. Officer Miller noticed on CAD that the suspect vehicle was headed towards the Yellow River WMA and went to assist in the event the suspects fled into the woods. The suspect driver wrecked and then stole a truck and traveled southbound on Highway 87 hitting patrol vehicles on the way. The Santa Rosa Sheriff’s Office pursued the suspect south into Navarre and Officer Miller followed behind in case the suspect went into Eglin Air Force Base. Shortly after the Sheriff’s Office ended the pursuit, the suspect rolled the stolen truck and Officer Miller then responded to assist with securing the suspect until he could be removed from the truck. Once the suspect was secured, Officer Miller met Officer Barnard to assist Santa Rosa Crime Unit with locating weapons that were thrown from the suspect vehicle during pursuit. Officers recovered three handguns and a magazine to a fourth weapon. The following morning, Officer Miller and K-9 Officer Pineda returned to the scene to assist again in the search for the fourth weapon. The officers and K-9 located another handgun magazine and other items dropped by the fleeing suspect.

ESCAMBIA  COUNTY

No information submitted this week for Escambia County.

This report represents some events the FWC handled over the past week; however, it does not include all actions taken by the Division of Law Enforcement. Information provided by FWC.

Comments

5 Responses to “FWC Law Enforcement Report”

  1. tsg on November 9th, 2015 10:05 pm

    I can’t believe anybody hunting over corn would even call themselves a hunter!

  2. john on November 9th, 2015 6:20 am

    Those men at the FWC probably are in more danger on a daily basis then any deputy ever thought about, especially when they are constantly having do deal with a bunch of red-neck hicks tromping around in the woods acting like they own the place!

  3. PensacolaEd on November 9th, 2015 6:08 am

    429SJ – No need to lock the gates behind you, baiting is legal on private land, it’s just on the WMA’s that it is illegal.

  4. Gman on November 9th, 2015 5:44 am

    FWC, you guys are awesome, keep up the good work.

  5. 429SCJ on November 9th, 2015 5:13 am

    If you want to hunt over baited sites, then I would suggest obtaining a hunting lease, and locking the gates behind you.