A Leesburg man was arrested after allegedly battering his pregnant girlfriend and pointing a firearm at her stomach in a Fruitland Park parking lot.
Police responded to a battery in progress at The Perfect Porch, located at 2520 U.S. Hwy. 27/441, at 10:37 a.m. Wednesday, according to an arrest report from the Fruitland Park Police Department.
As the officer approached the parking lot, he noticed the female victim inside of a white Dodge pickup frantically waving out of the rear passenger side of the vehicle. A man later identified as 65-year-old Alonzo Markus Randolph was walking around the front toward the bed of the truck, the report said.
Upon exiting his vehicle, the officer detained Randolph due to the report of a weapon being in his possession which he denied having. The victim then yelled that he threw the gun inside of the cooler in the bed of the pickup to hide it from the police. As she said this, she removed a black Tarus .38 caliber revolver from the cooler and tossed it onto the ground, the report said.
The victim was separated from Randolph as other officers arrived. She advised that she and Randolph had been in a romantic relationship for the past year and a half. They previously lived together as a family unit until a recent different domestic incident occurred. She was also about 5 months pregnant with his child, the report said.
During the incident on Wednesday, the two were verbally arguing over Randolph supporting the victim in her pregnancy. She made a statement about other males from across the street helping her, which enraged Randolph. He pulled the vehicle into the parking lot and continued arguing with the victim, who climbed into the rear passenger side seat, the report said.
Randolph had the gun in a softshell gun case on his lap during this argument. He used a closed fist to punch the victim in the right cheek area against her will. Then, he took the gun out of the case, pointed the barrel at her and pressed it against her side, which put her in fear for her unborn child’s life. This was when she called law enforcement, the report said.
The officer observed a visible red mark about the size of a large fist across the right side of the victim’s face in the upper cheekbone area. He also saw that she seemed to be showing signs of fetal development by the protruding of her stomach. No other visible injuries were seen on her, the report said.
Additionally, the victim recorded videos of the incident. In the first recording, there was no sound, although the officer saw her and Randolph engaged in a verbal argument. In the second one, Randolph was seen with a gun on his lap as he came toward the victim in an aggressive manner while she sat in her seat, the report said.
The officer then spoke with Randolph, who initially advised that the victim hit him in the face. The report noted that he kept saying he could not tell law enforcement where he was struck due to being handcuffed. However, he later stated the victim struck him with a closed fist on the right side of his face due to a verbal argument they were having, the report said.
Randolph also stated that after she struck him, she said he could not hit her anymore because she was pregnant. He claimed that he did not have a gun, and the gun belonged to her, the report said.
When confronted with the videos and told that law enforcement was able to see him have actual physical control over the weapon in his lap, Randolph’s demeanor changed, and he became quiet. He advised that he “doesn’t understand anything, let’s just go” and asked that someone be contacted to retrieve his vehicle, the report said.
The officer asked what he did not understand so he could explain it in a different way that he could understand, Randolph continued to advise he did not understand and refused to speak, the report said.
A criminal history check revealed that Randolph had 10 felony convictions. He also had previous battery convictions from 2001 and 2017, the report said.
Randolph was subsequently arrested on charges of aggravated battery on a pregnant person (domestic), aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill (domestic) and felon in possession of a firearm. He was transported to the Lake County Jail and released after posting $45,000 bond.
