A 28-year-old Ocala man was jailed on a multitude of charges recently after he fled from Marion County sheriff’s deputies in the parking lot of a local Walmart.
Deputies responded to the store, located at E. Silver Springs Boulevard, after receiving calls about 28-year-old Michael Patrick Risley. Deputies were told that he had been in the parking lot checking door handles and had left with a backpack “in a hurry,” a sheriff’s office report states.
A K-9 deputy located Risley speed walking on N.E. 24th Street and pulled over to question him about the incident. Risley fled on foot and the deputy eventually caught him and placed him in handcuffs, the report says.
Deputies searched Risley’s backpack and found a stolen firearm and two black lock boxes containing four bags of methamphetamine and two digital scales, according to the report.
An officer from the Ocala Police Department responded to take over the stolen firearm investigation. A deputy then placed Risley under arrest and transported him to the Marion County Jail, where he was charged with resisting an officer without violence, carrying a concealed unlicensed firearm, possession and/or use of drug equipment and trafficking methamphetamine (14 grams or over). His bond also was revoked on past charges of possession of methamphetamine and possession and/or use of drug equipment.
Risley was being held on no bond and is due in court June 15 to answer to the charges, jail records show.