On December 8th, 2024 in Florida around 11:03 p.m. a woman called 911 about a vehicle on East Blue Street. The caller said that a white Tesla was parked behind the house and she believed it was being used for narcotics activity. But that wasn't all. She also told dispatch that the people inside the car were armed.
Sergeant Zapata and Officer Hauser were the first to respond. When they reached the property, they found the Tesla exactly where the caller said it would be, parked on the north side.
“What are you doing here?” The first response was unclear. “Who else is in the car? Hey, you step out too.” “He lives here.”
“Okay. Well, the person that lives here is the one that called.” “Oh.” “Oh, are you staying right there? All right.”
An officer tried to clarify who lived at the house and who had been told to leave the property.
“Can I tell the one that lives here to step out?” “Nope. Has the parents ever told you here not to not to come back or not to be around here? No.”
“You have? Yeah. Okay. No.” “You know your son's in the car?”
The exchange briefly became difficult to hear as family members spoke over one another. An officer then told the younger people they should be inside the house.
“All right, but just say um”
“I already told him to step out. I don't want them in my yard. I don't want nobody at my house. So if he can't listen, take him with you. I mean what I said.”
“Go to your car. You got You got anything in the car you shouldn't have? Okay, yeah, we'll trust you.” “What I have”
“What you got?” “a firearm” “You got a firearm in there? Yeah.” “Okay. Where's it at?”
“Under my seat. I have a license for it.” “Keep your hands out of your pockets.” Officers then coordinated who would handle each detainee and vehicle.
Deputies found four people in the car. The driver that came out first was identified as Jeremiah. The one on the passenger seat was identified as Sherrod. And in the backseat was a man who told them his name was Mark, whose mother had shown up at the scene by then, too. The fourth person in that car was Ben Gibson II.
And it turns out it was his mother who'd actually called 911 in the first place. The police decided to detain them all as they went through the vehicle.
“All right, go ahead and face your car. There's nothing in your pockets that's going to prick, stab, poke, or hurt me in any way, shape, or form, is there? All right, put your hands on the car. All right, don't put your hands in your pockets. You're not under arrest at this time.”
“You're just being detained for our safety. All right, come on. Hey, is your car unlocked? Is your car unlocked?”
“unlocked.” “All right, come on.” “What's going on?”
“Let's get in the car. Have a seat. How do you feel in there? Show me your hands.”
“You got it. You got it. All right.” “Get in the front here.” “Pull him.” “Front seat.”
“Sit down.” “Not sure I want to do it.” “Get in the front of the car. All right, we'll go put these Yeah, I got them. We'll go put them in my car.”
Once the individuals were secured in the police cars, the officers moved to search the vehicle. Jeremiah had already made them aware that there was a firearm inside the car, but the deputies had no idea they were about to find much more than that.
“Okay.” “I don't know what you're doing.” “I'm going to put them in my car.” “I'm going to put them in my car.”
“Put them” “I got it.” “What do I do with this here?” “How do we start running that? We need to start working on names for everybody. Okay.”
“I'll work on this person and run the information. Where was this?” “That was in a backpack in the rear trunk area, so it may belong to the driver.”
“All right. Uh whose backpack?” “Do you know?”
“I haven't asked that yet, so” “Well, get to it here in a minute.” “An officer said they would continue identifying everyone, run the serial numbers, and document the evidence before deciding who could leave.” “need from us?”
“For right now, um I think if we can have If you guys need to One of you guys need to go, it's fine, but we'll get the rest of everybody. Okay.” “Um if Whoever is going to leave, can leave, but somebody stay here with him while I run the serial numbers and stuff like that. And I talked to mom to figure out why her son's here with us. Okay.” “I'm going to get some pictures and stuff cuz there's a like a whole unloaded joint in the back, so I want to get that where it actually is in the car.”
Deputy Lichty found the first weapon, an AK-47-style rifle, tucked halfway under the driver's side seat, right in the back. It had a magazine in it, and a round already chambered. More importantly, it was sitting right where the guy identifying himself as Mark had been sitting, close enough to grab. Sergeant Zapata found the second gun on the floorboard up front, a loaded Glock 44 handgun. Both weapons were in the arm's reach of the passengers.
With the guns, ammunition, and bags of suspected marijuana laid out as evidence, all four of the individuals were looking at potential felony charges. But, before anything else, the officers needed to identify everyone and gather basic information. That's when they uncovered a shocking detail about the guy who identified himself as Mark.
“Did you get um You got this guy's name?” “No, I'm not. I'm working on it right now.”
“No. Okay. Cuz I got his my guy's name, Sherrod Crawford.” “Hey, I'm 90% confident this is him in the picture.”
“Did he?” “Yeah, it doesn't come back with one like traffic stop involving him, but there's no ID or driver's” “cuz it says he's 11 years old. He told me he's 15.” “He says Mark Spearman.”
“Okay, I'm confident he's lying. He gave me something else wrong.” “What did he What did he give you?” “I don't know his name.” “Here, if you want to open and talk to him, you can.”
“Um We'll wait.” “Wait, let's get the information to this guy right here.” “My guy? Yeah. Yeah.” “You got his information?”