A naked man spotted lurking in the parking lot of the McDonalds restaurant in Leesburg was arrested after taking a bite out of police officers who tried to remove him from the premises.
The restaurant’s manager called the Leesburg Police Department after spotting the man in the wee hours Thursday morning, according to an arrest report.
The nude man, later identified as 33-year- old Jason Nathaniel Perez of Melbourne, appeared to be on narcotics and was speaking incoherently. He kept telling the officers that his clothes were somewhere else and he just needed to “retrace his steps” to find them. He told the officers that he would not leave the property and needed “to be arrested.”
When Perez was handed a trespass notice, he immediately laid down and refused to leave the parking lot, at which time he was placed under arrest. He refused to get in the patrol car and tensed up his body, kicking and biting the officers as they attempted to put him into the police car. Once in the car, Perez began kicking the passenger door rear window and when the officer opened the door, Perez lunged at him. At that point the police were able to get him on the ground and put him in a rip-hobble restraint device. Perez’s right knee and left eyebrow were cut during the struggle so he was taken to UF Health-Leesburg Hospital for evaluation before being transported to the Lake County Jail.
While at the hospital he was handcuffed to a bed and defecated on himself. The arresting officer took off the handcuff which was attached to the bed so Perez could clean himself up. As soon as Perez realized he was not attached to the bed he began to pull away from the officer who yelled for help. A male nurse ran to assist the officer and was bitten by Perez. Both the officer and the nurse ended up on the floor with Perez before he was subdued with the assistance of other officers who were also at the hospital. Several officers and the nurse had excrement on them after the struggle with Perez.
Before Perez could be transported to the Lake County Jail, the arresting officer was contacted by another Leesburg police officer who was investigating a report of a naked man who had broken into a laundry room located at the Windermere Villas on Griffin Road. The villa property manager showed the officer where the break-in had occurred and where a fire extinguisher had been stolen. Two female tenants came forward and told the officer that they had seen a naked man outside their apartment at 4:22 a.m. near the laundry room. They heard a loud banging coming from that area.
The officer then canvassed the neighborhood to see if anyone had a video of the incident. He made contact with an employee of Katrib Auto Sales on North 14th Street who showed him a surveillance video. The video showed Perez walking toward the business and throwing a fire extinguisher at the window.
Perez was charged with trespass, resisting arrest, burglary, theft of the fire extinguisher, criminal mischief and battery. He was booked at the jail on $23,000 bond.
