A Fruitland Park man was arrested for resisting an officer who stopped to question his presence at a bank.
An officer on patrol spotted an unattended white bicycle parked at the intersection of Palm Street and U.S. Hwy. 27/441 around 10 p.m. Wednesday, May 6, according to an arrest report from the Fruitland Park Police Department. Using a spotlight, he illuminated the nearby Citizens First Bank to see 41-year-old Shawn Brinson wearing all black.
He suddenly dropped something and began toward the bicycle, the report said. The officer approached him in his patrol vehicle and ordered him to stop. He told Brinson to walk toward the curb and stand in the grass, to which Brinson stated, “I don’t need to stand in the grass.”
Brinson then backed away with his bicycle between him and law enforcement. The officer drew his taser, pointing its green laser at Brinson’s abdomen while continuing to order him to the curb. Brinson eventually listened and was secured in handcuffs, the report said.
As he sat down on the curb, something metallic fell out of his pants. The officer suspected he was trying to burglarize the ATM or the bank itself and walked around the property to search for signs of damage. He started by returning to the curb where he originally found Brinson, and he discovered several small utility flags that had been bundled and dropped to the ground, the report said.
There was also a steel band around the concrete light pole at the corner that had been tampered with and was no longer secure. The strap secured a piece of conduit to the side of the pole, which covered wires that ran from the top of the pole to the ground. Inspecting the strap, the officer saw it originally had two “ears” bent upward to secure the strap, which were now bent downward to open the strap, the report said.
The conduit appeared to have been pushed back, given the pile of dirt that looked to have been disturbed at the base of the pole, but the wires did not seem to have been damaged or touched. The officer later identified what fell from Brinson’s pants as a pair of channel locks, a type of plier. After contacting the City of Leesburg Electric Department, the officer determined Brinson had used his channel locks to pry open the metal strap to access the wires under the conduit, the report said.
A subsequent search of Brinson’s person yielded two brass-colored keys, one of which was labeled “do not duplicate.” Brinson gave conflicting statements about what the keys were for, first claiming they belonged to his girlfriend’s residence in Lady Lake. He would not advise the address or any way to contact her, the report said.
Brinson denied tampering with the pole and stated he was picking up the utility flags from the bank’s property because he was not happy with how they made it look. He banked at Citizens First Bank, but he could not provide a bank-issued card. He advised that he would “pick one up tomorrow,” the report said.
He ended by saying he was “checking the ATM” and explained that he was checking his balance. He stated he did not know it was possible to do that on his phone, the report said.
The report noted that an employee from the Leesburg electric department later arrived on scene and advised that the band was single-use only. However, the band did not belong to the city and was more likely placed there by a cable company.
Brinson was ultimately arrested on charge of resist officer without violence. He was booked at Lake County Jail with bond set at $1,000.
He has a long history of arrests, with the most recent being earlier this year for trespassing at Walmart. Other priors include trespassing in Dec. 2025, trespassing at Wawa in June 2025, hitting a bystander in Sept. 2024, theft in July 2024, and trespassing at Circle K in Oct. 2021.