Florida Highway Patrol arrested a Palatka man Thursday afternoon after he reportedly ran from police during a traffic stop and had about 40 grams of cocaine.
About 3 p.m. Thursday, Edwin L. Brown, 32, was pulled over in the Kangaroo parking lot off of State Road 121 for not wearing a seat belt, according to a police report.
He reportedly used a fake name before showing a driver’s license which had been expired for more than eight years, according to the report.
Brown and his passenger ran after the officer tried to remove a hard object from Brown’s front pocket, according to the report.
A trooper found Brown walking away from a dumpster after a witness called about a man running behind Publix, according to the report. The passenger was never found.
GPD spokesman Officer Ben Tobias said criminals often get desperate to escape.
"They’ll get very desperate, and to avoid capture they will go to very extreme measures," he said.
The trooper also found about 40 grams of cocaine near where the witness said Brown threw something, according to the report.
Police arrested Brown on charges of resisting an officer, cocaine possession, cocaine trafficking and tampering with evidence along with two counts of possessing a controlled substance and two traffic violations.
Authorities took Brown to the Alachua County Jail where, as of press time, he remains in lieu of a $330,500 bond.
Contact Giuseppe Sabella at gsabella@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @Gsabella
