A Wildwood man was jailed Sunday night after Leesburg police officers reported seeing him walking toward a block party with a weapon in his pocket.
Leesburg officers were working at the block party at John Johnson Park off Mills Street when they spotted 19-year-old Darryl Jaquan Harrison walking toward the party. Officers reported that Harrison appeared to be “nervous” and was holding something in his right front pocket “that was clearly heavy and pulling his shorts down.” As he continued to “manipulate” the object, officers reported that it made an outline like a small handgun.
The officers walked toward the crowd and Harrison “attempted to distance himself.” He then stood between two vehicles with a group of males and continued to “manipulate the object in his pocket.” He saw officers looking at him and he “became increasingly nervous, displaying a wide-eyed look on his face,” a Leesburg Police report states.
As Harrison started to walk away while looking back at the officers, one asked him twice if they could speak with him. He then fled on foot south on Mills Street and “began digging into his pants as he ran.” An officer drew his weapon and ordered Harrison to stop and show his hands, but he kept running and eventually tossed aside a small black semi-automatic handgun, the report says.
Harrison ran through an open field paralleling McNamee Street and into a crowd. He headed toward the northwest corner of the park and then threw his hands in the air and surrendered when he came to a dead-end, the report says.
A Leesburg police sergeant recovered the handgun and identified it as a Taurus G2C 9mm pistol. The firearm didn’t have a magazine in it but it did have one round in the chamber. Officers believe the magazine may have fallen out during the foot pursuit but weren’t able to locate it.
After being read his rights, Harrison told officers that he didn’t have a magazine for the weapon but then refused to say anything else. A records check showed that he didn’t have a concealed weapons permit and the handgun had been reported stolen in Ocala in July.
Harrison, who lives at 802 Jackson St. in Wildwood, was transported to the Lake County Jail and charged with theft of a firearm, carrying a concealed weapon and obstructing without violence. He was released late Sunday night on $5,000 bond and is due in Lake County Court on Nov. 16 at 8:30 a.m. to answer to the charges, jail records show.
Harrison also was arrested in August 2019 with marijuana after he was spotted driving without a seat belt by a Sumter County sheriff’s deputy. He was stopped at County Road 214 and State Road 44 and immediately began making calls to friends and family members to come to the scene of the traffic stop. After a K-9 alerted on his vehicle, the deputy reported finding 8.1 grams of marijuana tucked in his boxer briefs, a report states.
