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Ocala
Thursday, March 28, 2024

Firecracker-tossing Ocala man popped for DUI

Nicholas Shayne Metcalfe

An Ocala man was charged with DUI after a Marion County sheriff’s deputy saw him throwing lit firecrackers from a moving truck.

The deputy was traveling east in the 300 block of W. Highway 40 at around 9:15 p.m. Monday when he observed a black Dodge Ram truck in the center median when he observed a series of loud pops. The deputy looked in the side-view mirror and saw what appeared to be firecrackers going off near the truck, according to the sheriff’s office report.

The deputy turned around, got behind the truck at the intersection of W. Highway 40 and N. Pine Avenue and ran the license tag through the sheriff’s office teletype. While waiting for the result, the deputy saw more firecrackers being thrown from the driver’s side of the truck. The turned south on Pine Avenue and started following a gold minivan too closely, the report said.

The deputy conducted a traffic stop in the 500 block of South Pine Avenue and spoke with the driver, Nicholas Shayne Metcalfe, of 321 Oak Trak. Metcalfe’s eyes were bloodshot and his breath had the odor of an intoxicating beverage. Asked how much he had to drink, he said he had two beers and said he would perform field sobriety exercises without the deputy asking him to, according to the report.

Metcalfe struggled during each of the exercises and was placed under arrest. The results of a breath-alcohol test were .073 and .075, the report said.

Metcalfe was taken to the Marion County Jail, where he was released Tuesday on $1,000 bond. He’ll answer to the DUI charge in Marion County Court on Dec. 23.