FWC Law Enforcement Weekly Report 04/18 - 04/24/2014

FWC

Division of Law Enforcement

 

Weekly Report

April 18, 2014 - April 24, 2014

This report represents some events the FWC handled over the past week;

however, it does not include all actions taken by the Division of Law Enforcement.

Patrol, Protect, Preserve

NORTHWEST REGION

OKALOOSA COUNTY

Officers Maltais and Bartlett responded to a boating accident that occurred in Santa Rosa Sound. Once on scene, they discovered that a vessel had run aground on one of the spoil islands. The passenger of the vessel was ejected on impact and transported to the hospital where he was treated for a broken collar bone. During an interview with the operator of the vessel, he admitted his navigational lights stopped working while underway and leaving the helm to attempt to fix them without stopping the boat. The operator advised that while attempting to fix his navigational lights and while still under way, he looked up and saw that he was about to run hard aground. By the time the operator realized what was about to happen, it was too late to react.

Officers P. Rockwell and H. Rockwell were working the Destin Pass, Destin East Jetty area. The officers had received information that the pompano were biting and fishermen were catching their daily bag limit in just minutes. Given this information and previous knowledge of subjects taking advantage of this type of fishing activity, both officers planned to target possible over-the-bag limit violations. While observing multiple subjects for a short period of time, both officers observed one individual consistently catching pompano and then throwing them into a small bag hidden in the rocks. The officers observed the subject keep 12 pompano without throwing any back into the water. Instead, the subject continued to hide them in his bag hidden in the jetty rocks. When the subject attempted to leave the area with his fish, the officers followed the subject and later made contact with him. They advised him that they had observed the violation and knew that he was in possession of at least double the legal bag limit. During a fisheries inspection, the subject was found to have 12 pompano in his possession. The subject was then issued a misdemeanor citation for over the bag limit of pompano.

SANTA ROSA COUNTY

Investigator Hughes was contacted by Blackwater River State Park Ranger Hatfield regarding the Blackwater River State Park sign adjacent to the entrance of the park having been vandalized by graffiti. Upon arrival, Investigator Hughes observed that the park sign had been hit with white and light green paint.  Further investigation revealed two broken beer bottles with traces of green paint which appeared to have been thrown at the sign and busted upon impact.  The two sections of the broken bottles found on the ground underneath the sign had electrical tape around the top of the bottles. An attempt to take latent fingerprints from the partial pieces of broken bottles was conducted with no success. A possible suspect has been identified, but not located.

Officer Miller was on patrol at East River Boat Ramp when two subjects pulled up asking for help. One of the subjects had several medical issues and was lying in the bottom of the vessel. They had been fishing on East River when they both fell out the boat and over exerted themselves trying to get back into the vessel. Officer Miller called for EMS while assisting the subject up from the bottom of the vessel. The subject who was lying in the bottom of the vessel was taken by EMS to get a medical attention. Officer Miller then assisted with loading the vessel for the other subject.

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