VIDEO: DeLand Man Charged With Battery On Paramedics

Date Added: February 19, 2018 4:17 pm

Note: The deputy’s body-worn camera video is available at https://youtu.be/SnFWS5RrmCY

DELAND MAN CHARGED WITH BATTERY ON PARAMEDICS

A DeLand man who attacked a Volusia County ambulance crew on the way to the hospital Sunday night was arrested by Volusia County sheriff’s deputies who rushed to the scene and found him putting a paramedic in a choke hold on the side of the road.

David W. Parsons, 33, was taken into custody seconds after Deputy Micah Stoltz arrived at the roadside scuffle and deployed his Taser on the combative patient. Parsons was charged with two felony counts of battery on an EMT.

Stoltz responded to the call around 10:24 p.m. Sunday in the area of the 720 block of East Taylor Road in DeLand, where he found Parsons straddling one paramedic while the other was trying to pull him off. When Parsons didn’t comply with Stoltz’s three commands (“Let him go! Let go of him now! Let go of him now!”), he quickly found himself on the receiving end of a deployment from the deputy’s Taser. (See video at https://youtu.be/SnFWS5RrmCY)

The paramedics told deputies Parsons had been belligerent throughout their interactions with him that evening. The paramedic who was driving the ambulance said he looked in the rear-view mirror and saw Parsons getting off the stretcher and attacking the paramedic riding in the back. The ambulance pulled over, and the driver opened the back door to find Parsons with the paramedic in a choke hold. The driver rushed in and put Parsons in a choke hold until he released the other paramedic, and the altercation spilled out of the ambulance.

Parsons continued to act aggressively toward the paramedics and attempted to run at them and into oncoming traffic. He stopped a passing vehicle and ran toward it; one of the paramedics got between Parsons and the vehicle and tried to calm him down. However, Parsons grabbed him and put him in a choke hold, and the two ended up on the ground with the other paramedic trying to pull Parsons off. That’s when Deputy Stoltz arrived and the altercation came to an end.

The paramedics were in good condition after the incident, and Parsons was medically cleared at Florida Hospital DeLand before being transported to the Volusia County Branch Jail, where he remained held Monday afternoon on $10,000 bail.