The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office on Monday was in a standoff with two suspects in a U-Haul truck on SR-A1A, the agency confirmed. The incident took place in Flagler Beach around the area of North 15th Street. Both suspects are in custody, according to the FCSO.
The incident began when a call was placed about a suspicious vehicle. A traffic stop was conducted by deputies, and the truck is said to have fled. Deputies deployed stop sticks and punctured the truck’s tires, before surrounding it with several agency vehicles. Deputies quickly closed off a few blocks of SR-A1A, as well as some of the adjacent side streets.
A FCSO deputy trains his gun on the U-Haul truck on SR-A1A. Photo courtesy of Andrea Griffith.
During the standoff multiple deputies had guns drawn from several angles around the truck. A spokesman with the FCSO says there were no gunshots fired, as previously speculated by some residents in the vicinity. They instead broke the windows with shatterballs, a small metal ball with spikes thrown by hand to shatter glass.
A standoff ensued between the two occupants and law enforcement. Responding units included the SWAT team, Crisis Negotiations Team, Drone Unit, and K-9 Unit. The occupants appeared to be a white woman in the driver’s seat and black man in the passenger seat. At least one of the two appeared to have wound up on the beach before being escorted back up a nearby wooden staircase. One individual was seen being loaded onto a stretcher.
The identity of the two suspects have not yet been confirmed by the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office, nor have their criminal charges. This story is still developing, and more information will be added as it becomes available.
A SWAT vehicle blocks the U-Haul truck’s path on SR-A1A. ⓒ Flagler County Sheriff’s Office
