Vacationing GA deputy threatens to stab beachgoers, fights cops, FL cops say
.jpg "A Georgia deputy has resigned from his job after he was arrested during an altercation at a Florida beach, authorities said.")
A deputy from Georgia visiting the Florida Panhandle parked himself under another beachgoer’s tent, threatened to stab people and then resisted other deputies trying to arrest him, authorities said.
The Floyd County Sheriff’s Office told McClatchy News on July 23 that 46-year-old Christoper Cook has since resigned from his position.
Cook is charged with resisting an officer without violence, possessing a concealed handcuff key while in custody, larceny, breach of peace and giving false information to a law enforcement officer, according to the Bay County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies got a call from Panama City Beach on July 11 about a man sitting in the caller’s beach chair under their tent and refusing to move, according to an arrest affidavit.
“Dispatch advised the male threatened to stab people, however they did not observe any weapons on him,” investigators said.
Witnesses also reported Cook caused issues at the bar of a condo building and had been “harassing” a family with kids.
Deputies said they found Cook sitting in the beach chair and asked him what the problem was, and he responded he was hanging out and asked them what the problem was, according to the affidavit.
The deputies told him he was sitting in someone else’s chair, depriving them of their property, and throughout the conversation, Cook kept saying, “Define it,” according to the affidavit.
He refused to move or “have normal dialogue,” law enforcement said.
Deputies said they called for backup, but even then, Cook wouldn’t budge, so two deputies began trying to take him into custody.
“Upon doing so, the defendant would not comply and began to jerk his arms away from us and tuck his arms underneath himself, refusing to put his hands behind his back, causing the chair to fall over with him in it,” according to the affidavit.
The deputies eventually took him into custody, and Cook told them his name was John Doe, investigators said.
While he was in the back of the patrol car, he’s accused of using a handcuff key he had to try to unlock his cuffs. The deputy transporting him noticed he was fiddling with the cuffs and had to pull over and ask another deputy to make sure Cook hadn’t slipped out, according to the affidavit.
It wasn’t until Cook was being booked in jail that law enforcement said they realized he had a key on him, which they believe he had hidden in an envelope in his pants.
Records show he bonded out of Bay County jail.
Cook is from Floyd County in northwest Georgia bordering Alabama.
This story was originally published July 23, 2025 at 2:35 PM.