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Man Arrested After Wheelchair Rampage
March 21, 2012
A Century man was jailed after allegedly going on a rampage in a convenience store, running over people, tossing merchandise and shattering a glass door.
Curtis Edward Smith, age 55 of the 3000 block of Highway 168, was charged with two counts of aggravated battery and criminal mischief property damage after the incident before sunrise Monday at the Bindu Food Mart on Gulf Beach Highway. He was jailed with bond set at $6,000, but the amount was lowered to $1,100 by a judge.
Smith allegedly approached the clerk and demanded to speak to the manager, who was not in the store at the time. The clerk told deputies that Smith then began yelling and ripping his shirt, claiming he had been attacked. Smith began to chase the clerk around the store in motorized wheelchair, hitting her once on the shin, and threw potato chip racks at her and around the store, according to an Escambia County Sheriff’s Office arrest report.
The clerk said Smith then began ramming his wheelchair into the store’s door, shattering the glass. Another witness corroborated the clerk’s story and also claimed the Smith called him racial obscenities and hit him with the wheelchair.
When deputies arrived, Smith was still inside the store, yelling, “Call the [obscenity] police and take me to jail”, the arrest report states. As the deputy tried to calm Smith, he attempted to roll toward the deputy, demanding that the officer purchase him a drink and some food. The deputy ordered Smith to turn off the wheelchair, but he began to roll around the store.
Smith was later stopped and transported to West Florida Hospital to be treated for injuries to his feet caused by shattering the glass door of the store.
Smith remained behind bars Tuesday afternoon.
Comments
31 Responses to “Man Arrested After Wheelchair Rampage”
I hope Curt will seek and get the help he needs,for his and his familys sake.
All I can say is WOW just wow at all the excuses some are making for this man. Right is right and wrong is wrong. Doesn’t matter if your in a wheelchair or not. Praying for the family for having to go threw all of this!
All I can say is if I had been in a wheelchair all of my life & was coming up in years, I would probably throw a “hissy fit” every once in awhile; it’s probably frustrating as hell. And who knows maybe his sugar was low from not eating & that makes one very irritable..
Unfortunately, the Baker Act only works when you have police officers willing to enforce it. My family attempted to have a member put on a 72 hour hold, and the police deemed it not necessary. Within 24 hours, the family member was behind bars on charges of assault with a deadly weapon. If the State of Florida expects LEOs to enforce the Baker Act, then they should be better trained!
Did anyone stop to think of the family how embarrassed and hurt they are right now of all the talk !!! It is not the family fault blame Curt ….. If I were him he should be embarrassed to the fact he is in jail and the family has advised him to get get help and he has refused to do so !!!! My heart goes out to the family !!! Just remember family it is not your fault it should be on Curt’s head to know now he has been put in all the news papers cause he was the one to stubborn to listen to family and friends !!! Curt should be the one held accountable and embarrassed !!!
Is this the same Curtis who worked at the job service in the early 90s? He was always very polite and helpful when I was looking for a job right out of high school. I hope he can fix these problems. He’s no loser, he helped a lot of people in a job way back when.
To the family, I am so sorry you are going through this, as, I am sorry that he is going through this also. As far as I know, it is now and always has been that 2 family members can sign and have him baker acted for 72 hours in a mental facility. This should start getting him help.
I hate to see people in a condition such as this, and in no way do I see anything funny about this! This man should not have been arrested, he should have rather been baker acted and gotten help started!
Curtis was Baker Acted 5 years ago and that didn’t do any good… Curt has to want the help before he is going to get any better. I have experience his behavior personally and it was very disturbing and heart breaking. He can be calm one minute and in a rage the next…. he does need help… but no one can make anyone get help if they don’t want it.
Mr Coe offered an interesting perspective and insight to Mr Smiths condition. I pray for him and his family. He proably just needs a ride in the country with a friend who will tell him, Curtiss you are all over the road, get back between the lines. I look for him to bounce back.
You all need to stop picking on the family !! They have done all they can do it is hard to get an adult put in a mental facility with out a court order. And if the man wants help for himself he can put him self in there. But also you have to have a doctor to write the order up.. You all are so quick to judge family and friends not that easy.. Now the people that arrested him should of took him in as 51/50… instead of putting him in jail go after the police dept not family or friends !!! That is where the help starts !!!! The man was out of his head come on people the police dept should of taken him to the hospital as a 51/51 and let the doctor make the call as a mental person instead of getting his cut feet looked at . They only wanted the bail money as far as I see it instead of getting the man help .
yeah he seems upset , but gotta be a good reason,,, curtis has given jobs to a bunch of people , and helped with their unemployement status to keep ‘um lookin for work , good man ,
If his family thinks he will get mental health while sitting in jail, they are sorely mistaken. Whoever is living in his house right now, needs to get 100 bucks and get him to a mental facility.
I’m curious to know how many ADA Code Violations there were in that store? I haven’t had to use my wheel chair in a long time, but there were a few years where I used it regularly.
Until you try to function in society using a wheel chair, you can’t possibly understand how frustrating it.
I’m not saying that makes this guys behavior ok or that it justifies anything he did. but I get why he could get that frustrated.
Convenient store are terrible places to have to be a chair. First, most of them have their Handicap Parking far away from the front door, which is just rude. Second, convenient stores love to make isles too tight by stacking cases of beer on the floor or other floor displays.
Third, when you are in a wheel chair, many people are just rude. They pretend you are invisible and cut you off and walk in front of you like they didn’t see you. Which, BTW, if I’m using the electric shopping cart at the grocery store and someone uses that “cut me off” maneuver as though they didn’t see me, when we made eye contact and I know they saw me, I will run into you. I’m just sayin’,lol.
If this man went off about 5 years ago and has been acting like this
Jail is certainly not where he should be. Family and friends should
have gotten him the help he needs. Obviously he has some mental
issues and needs to be sent to a hospiital.
Oh that’s right NOW WE pay for his care instead of his family and friends.
Never mind!
No longer
Thanks
bond is $1,100—which would make bail $110.00.
I am not sure where this $110.00 Bond came from. I read above that bond was set at $1,100.00.
I plainly stated I only saw him when he was at work, …and most of us are on our best behavior at work. I didn’t come out and say there must be some psychological issues, but I alluded to as much(meds gone awry). I’m sure anyone that reads this article, or hears about the incident, thinks this is bizzare behavior. If I only needed $110.00 to bond out of jail, my family/friends wouldn’t have to bond me out. I’d get myself out of the place!!! Don’t be defensive, when you don’t need to be. I never mentioned his family. If i felt that way, I would have said it.
This is one of the best loved Blackcats that ever lived. I went to school with Little Curt and I can tell you that he was a joy to everyone that knew him. He retired from a productive career with the state so we can’t hardly treat him like a common loser. If he needs help, I hope he gets it.
Let us all pray for Curt.
He has overcame much,and he will overcome this.
I’ve always liked Curtis and hope he gets better
People are so quick to feel bad for him. What about his family? His family are the ones who are going through it. People that say “they know” him. Must of “known” him years ago. He has been acting this way off and on for years. His family tried to get him the help He needed a day before this happened. BIG THANKS to the Escambia County Police officers by the way who did absolutely NOTHING. He has serious mental issues but no one wants to get him the help he DESPERATELY needs! & unfornately this is the outcome of it & for someone to say his bond was only $110 why hasn’t been bonded out?? Well…. He hasn’t been bonded out BECAUSE he is much safer in there than out here. POINT BLANK PERIOD. Maybe if he stays in there he will get some help. So no were not a sorry family that won’t bond him out were a family that wants him to get some help even if it means he has to sit in jail.
I agree with “I know him”… I know this side of Curt up close and personal. He once was a sweet man, but something changed over 5 years ago and he does need help but he needs to want help. My heart goes out to his daughter.
people that has not seen this side of Curt are the lucky ones . but for the ones that have you are in my prayers .He needs help .He is sick he has hurt his parents and kids and grandkids enough..
I hope the poor guy has had something to eat and drink by now, and is feeling better.
Let us pray for Curtis. I have never seen him in such condition and his face looks very drained. Call upon the Lord for renewal of his faith and strength…
Life is perilous and we must never let go of the unchanging hand of our heavenly father.
OMG!! I’ve never seen this side, but I only saw him when he was at work. Is he on prescription meds gone awry? What the hell? Something’s terribly wrong, at $110.00 why hasn’t he been bonded out?
Bless his heart! This is not the Curt I know, something more is going on here. Curt is a good man & I am praying for him.
OMG,,, I’am shocked about this i went to school with Little Curt,,,, thats what we called him !!!! he was so nice and friendly and was always in a wheelchair sorry to see this mess .
This isn’t funny…but it is … ha .. That would have been amazing to see … glad everyone is okay!
Boy oh boy…he was on a roll wasn’t he
Just when you think you have seen it all. Something new.