A man was arrested earlier this week after Ocala Police officers received notification of a stolen vehicle traveling north on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue.
The vehicle, a red Dodge Ram pickup, was reported stolen Monday out of Citrus County. Officers spotted the truck and the driver, later identified as 31-year-old Dominique Epps, 31, ran from them, an Ocala Police report states.
A pursuit then took place through the western corridor of Ocala, with the pickup running multiple stop signs, driving in the opposing lanes of traffic, reaching speeds of more than 100 miles per hour in a residential area and driving through yards, the report says.
The pickup eventually headed south on NW 9th Avenue and came out at State Road 40. It then jumped the median in the 700 block of W SR 40 onto the 700 block of W Broadway Street, the report says.
The pickup, with a flattened front tire, then stopped and Epps fled the scene before being caught in the rear of a nearby church, the report says.
Epps told officers that he was “taking this dude truck” and “I was taking him back his truck.” He stated that he had “drunk some (expletive deleted)” and whatever was in his drink caused him to run from law enforcement, the report says.
Epps also uttered that he met a man in the Beverly Hills area and that he stayed the night at his residence. Epps said the man overdosed on heroin and “we took the truck,” the report says.
Epps said he didn’t to be in the same place as someone who had overdosed, so he took the man’s truck and drove to Ocala with a girl. And he again claimed that he fled from officers because “whatever was in that drink, made me spaz the (expletive deleted) out,” the report says.
Officers then spoke with a Citrus County sheriff’s deputy who said that the pickup was reported stolen to their agency on Monday. The deputy confirmed that the man Epps referred to had overdosed.
After the pickup was towed, deputies searched it and found a clear glass pipe on the passenger-side floorboard. It tested positive for the presence of methamphetamine, the report says.
Epps, who has been in the Marion County Jail 13 times since April 2006, was charged with fleeing or eluding with disregard of safety to persons or property, larceny/grand theft of a testamentary instrument, driving while license is suspended or revoked, resisting arrest without violence and possession of drug equipment. He is being held on $20,000 bond and is due in court on July 9 at 9 a.m. to answer to the charges.