MARATHON, Fla. – A man from Waldorf, Maryland, was arrested Friday morning after he spit on a gas station clerk in South Florida before fleeing from deputies, authorities said.
The incident was reported around 3 a.m. at a Shell gas station at 11100 Overseas Highway in Marathon.
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According to Monroe County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Adam Linhardt, the clerk reported a suspicious man wearing a Burger King paper crown inside the store who was talking to himself and pacing.
The clerk said the man, later identified as Torrance Fitzgerald Hillard, 34, spit in his face when he was asked to leave.
Linhardt said he then fled south in a black Cadillac.
According to Linhardt, Deputy Connor Curry spotted the Cadillac a short time later heading south on U.S. 1 near Mile Marker 30.
He said Hillard failed to pull over for the deputy, reaching speeds of 79 mph.
According to Linhardt, Curry stopped pursuing the Cadillac once he lost sight of it, but Deputy Micheal Watkins then spotted the Cadillac near Mile Marker 16, at which time Hillard finally stopped his vehicle.
Authorities said Hillard told them he thought he was traveling in a direction that would lead him out of Monroe County in an effort to avoid being arrested.
Hillard was taken into custody on charges of battery and fleeing and eluding.