- April 18, 2024
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A 31-year-old Palm Coast man wanted on a warrant from Louisiana was struck with a Taser, escaped from a patrol car, led officers on a chase and then was caught in a tree in the woods Jan. 31.
George Garland Wood, a felon and a resident of Pineland Drive in Palm Coast, was at the door of a Dodge Ram arguing with someone in the truck in the middle of the parking lot of the Circle K at the intersection of State Road 100 and U.S. 1. at about 9:25 p.m. The argument was getting loud, blocking traffic and attracting the attention of a local deputy, the deputy wrote in an arrest report.
Somebody chucked an unopened can of beer out of the truck and it struck the ground and exploded. The Flagler County Sheriff's Office deputy ordered Wood to come speak with him.
But Wood replied, "What do I need to talk to you for," then walked over to a 2006 Chevy van. He "jumped, head-first, into the van through an open window, while yelling 'Go, Babe, go!'" to the woman at the wheel, later determined to be 23-year-old Emily Burguez, who lived at the same home as Wood, according to the deputy's report.
Wood reached over Burguez and pressed the gas pedal with his hand, according to a report by a Bunnell Police officer who was also at the scene. The van "jerked forward violently," according to the Sheriff's Office deputy's report, and the deputy grabbed Wood through the open window.
Wood put the van in reverse, driving over a curb, striking a pole and forcing the Bunnell officer to leap out of the way.
With the van wedged against the pole, the Bunnell officer told Wood to get out, but Wood kept trying to shift it into drive. The officer used his Taser and struck Wood with it for five seconds, taking him to the ground.
The deputy dragged Wood out of the van to the ground — handcuffing him as Wood kept trying to pull away — and placed him in a Sheriff's Office patrol car. The deputy ran Wood's name through a crime information database and found that Wood had a warrant out of Louisiana for burglary, with nationwide extradition.
The deputy found a loaded handgun, a round still in its chamber and six more in its magazine, sitting in plain sight between the driver's and passenger's seat of the van. Burguez said that the gun wasn't hers, that she hadn't known it was there, and that Wood had borrowed the van from a friend.
As the deputy was speaking with Burguez, he saw the Bunnell officer take off running: Wood had managed to move his cuffed hands from behind his body to the front of his body, rip the cage from the patrol car's prisoner compartment, and bolt, running down North Anderson Street and into nearby woods.
The Sheriff's Office set up a perimeter and brought in police dogs, and called out Volusia County's emergency helicopter, Air One.
Air One picked up a heat signal in a tree near East Howe Street and North Cherry Street, and deputies followed on the ground and arrested Wood, who they found — after he yelled "I'm over here" — sitting in a tree.
Wood is charged in Flagler County with resisting arrest without violence, aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, driving on a suspended license, aiding escape, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and felony criminal mischief.
He is in jail with no bail permitted.
The Sheriff’s Office is investigating to find out how Wood was able to pry his way out of the patrol car, according to a Sheriff's Office news release. The news release noted that the patrol car was a 2012 Chevrolet Caprice, which doesn't have the solid door panel used in newer patrol cars. "We are inspecting the remaining seven Caprices in service and will take corrective action if necessary," the news release stated.
