‘Dangerous, senseless’: See thousands gather at wild block party in Central Florida
Sheriff Mike Chitwood had a busy weekend. And not in a good way.
The head of the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office in Central Florida posted his outrage over an out-of-control party in DeLand that went from Saturday night into Sunday morning.
“Where else in Volusia County does a mob of thousands of people pack the streets?” read Chitwood’s Facebook rant about the party held amid a global pandemic. “Where else are people throwing glass bottles at law enforcement and sucker punching deputies?”
Chitwood says that the party got so wild that someone pointed a gun in the crowd and “two convicted felons” exchanged a loaded gun right in front of officers. At least two arrests were made amid the chaos.
Police footage shows dozens upon dozens of people walking along the streets, almost shoulder to shoulder, and not practicing social distancing.
This is how the events unraveled, according to the sheriff’s office:
Starting Saturday afternoon and into early Sunday, an estimated 3,000 people gathered in several locations throughout downtown. “While the daytime was relatively uneventful, things started getting out of hand as day turned to night,” Chitwood said.
Among the frightening issues deputies encountered, according to the sheriff: “A long gun pointed out of the passenger window of a passing vehicle, a loaded gun handed off from one convicted felon to another, agitated crowds of bystanders.”
Several officers were hurt in the melee. Two deputies were hit with a cup of alcohol and another “sucker punched” by a suspect who fled the area. Bottles, jars and bar stools were used against law enforcement “as weapons or projectiles,” according to the sheriff’s post.
“The behavior that occurred here overnight was dangerous, senseless, unacceptable and an embarrassment to our community,” Chitwood said. “None of it will deter law enforcement from coming back when we’re needed.”
On Monday morning, the law enforcement chief said in another FB post that cooler heads need to prevail in these stressful times.
“I’m asking everyone to hit pause and take a second to cool off, myself included.”
This story was originally published May 18, 2020 at 10:29 AM.
