Lake County sheriff’s deputies used Stop Sticks to apprehend a Leesburg man after a high-speed chase that started when he failed to come to a full stop at a stop sign.
Richard Allen Sistrunk, 37, of 9835 Variety Road, was charged with fleeing/eluding a patrol vehicle after the incident, which started Friday night when a deputy observed a white Hyundai fail to come to a complete stop at the sign while turning north from Pine Island Drive onto Harbor Shores Road.
The deputy alerted another deputy about the infraction and he tried to initiate a traffic stop near the intersection of County Road 44 and Cypress Road in Leesburg. The vehicle failed to stop and rapidly accelerated away, according to the sheriff’s office report.
The deputy did not pursue the vehicle at that time. The vehicle was seen a short time later traveling on Emeralda Island Road and a deputy again tried to stop it, but it fled again at a high speed, the report said.
The vehicle was remotely surveilled on Emeralda Island Road as a deputy put out the Stop Sticks at the intersection of County Road 452 and Em En El Grove Road. The vehicle ran over the tire deflation devices and came to a stop just north of the intersection, according to the report.
The driver was identified as Sistrunk, who admitted to fleeing from the traffic stops. Sistrunk has four prior arrests – all for drug-related offenses – since 2018, according to jail records. He was taken to the Lake County Jail, where he’s being held on $10,000 bond. Sistrunk is scheduled to appear in Lake County Court on Jan. 3.
