BUNNELL, FL – Sharp-eyed deputies with helicopter assistance pulled a 23-year-old Gainesville resident out of a swamp and placed him in handcuffs after he fled from a traffic stop in Bunnell, crashed into a ditch and tried to hide himself in a pond.
Alunzo Devon Peoples is now out on $6,000 bond from the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Center following his arrest at 5:31 a.m. Thursday (August 18, 2022) near 1215 County Road 304 in Bunnell, nearly five hours after a Flagler County Sheriff’s Office (FCSO) deputy tried to pull him over for a suspended license.
Peoples now faces four charges, including felonies of fleeing and eluding and cocaine possession. Deputies found 2.56 grams of cocaine in a plastic bag which fell out of his wrecked black Chevrolet as it was being towed away, according to Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly.
“We do not give up getting our man,” Sheriff Staly added. “Fleeing from a deputy is never a smart move. You only go to jail tired and, in this case, muddy and wet! He also endangered our deputies and citizens with his reckless driving. I thank our fellow Sheriff’s Offices in Volusia and Seminole counties for providing the aerial support we needed to find him and stick him in the Green Roof Inn.”
It all started at 12:40 a.m. Thursday (August 18, 2022) when a deputy attempted to pull Peoples’ vehicle over on West State Road 100 near U.S. 1 after confirming his suspended license. Instead of stopping, Peoples U-turned on SR 100 and sped away heading westbound. The deputy did not pursue but followed from a safe distance and observed Peoples make another U-turn at Dean Road and then go east on SR 100 at a high rate of speed. The vehicle then went through a red light at SR 100 and U.S. 1, turned into the southbound lanes of U.S. 1 and went down to State Road 11, where it got into
the westbound lanes.
From there, the vehicle fled onto CR 304’s eastbound lanes, where another deputy successfully deployed stop sticks, causing the tire treads to separate and eventually leaving the vehicle with no working tires. Peoples abandoned the vehicle after it ran off the road and into a canal on the 1300 block of CR 304. Deputies made sure no one else was inside the Chevy before setting up a search perimeter and calling for air assistance from the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office (VCSO) and Seminole County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO).
Deputies located Peoples around 200 yards away from the wrecked vehicle hiding in a cypress pond after his heat signature was picked up by VCSO’s Air One helicopter. FCSO’s Marine Unit then put an airboat into the swamp to apprehend him and bring him back to shore after he refused to come out on his own.
Peoples has no prior arrests in Flagler County.
Date: August 19, 2022
Prepared by: Messod Bendayan, Public Affairs Office Manager
Release #: 2022-194
