A man with two prior arrests this year is back in the Lake County Jail after he reportedly tried run from officers who were arresting him on drug and trespassing charges at a Leesburg gas station.
Ricardo A.J. Kirkwood, 30, of Astatula, was wearing a black shirt with marijuana leaves on it when he was arrested at the Kangaroo store at 1331 W. North Blvd. He was charged with possession of methamphetamine, possession of drug paraphernalia, trespassing after warning, and resisting an officer without violence.
Shortly before midnight Monday, two Leesburg police officers responded to a report of a suspicious person at the store. The clerk told the officers a man was in the restroom who they believed had been trespassed from the store before. The clerk pointed out the man – later identified as Kirkwood – when he came out of the restroom, according to the police report.
An officer spoke with Kirkwood, who provided a Florida ID card. Asked if he had been trespassed from this location, Kirkwood replied, “I don’t think so.” The other officer confirmed with dispatch at Kirkwood had been trespassed from the store on Jan. 13, the report said.
When the officers told Kirkwood he was under arrest, he tried to run south around the corner of the store. An officer grabbed Kirkwood and pinned him up against the store while the other officer grabbed Kirkwood’s left wrist and pulled it down to his side. Kirkwood refused to listen to the officers’ directions, so they escorted him to the ground and placed him in handcuffs, according to the report.
The officers searched Kirkwood and found the following a yellow glass pipe with residue and two pieces of cut straws in his right front pocket. Inside a small coin pocket was a small glass vial containing a clear crystal substance that tested positive for methamphetamine. A black sock containing a glass pipe used for smoking meth was in Kirkwood’s left front pocket. An unloaded syringe was found in his backpack, the report said.
Kirkwood told the officers he believed his wrist was broken and Lake County EMS was summoned to the scene. Kirkwood was taken to UF Health Leesburg, where x-rays were negative for any fractures, according to the report.
Jail records show Kirkwood was arrested in February on a domestic battery charge and in June for trespassing. After being released from the hospital, he was taken to the Lake County Jail, where he’s being held on $5,000 bond. Kirkwood is scheduled to appear in Lake County Court on Nov. 21.
