HALLANDALE BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) - Police have made an unusual arrest of a naked man who, they said, was apparently thrown off a second-story balcony of a Hallandale Beach condominium, led officers on a chase in a stolen car and used the vehicle to strike two of the officers.
According to neighbors living at the apartment building, the man, later identified as 28-year-old Walter Martin, was apparently thrown out of the building without clothes on during a party gone awry.
Cellphone video captured the bizarre and odd moments that led to officers discharging their firearms, Monday morning.
“Something went wrong there, guys,” said a witness. “Something went wrong.”
Neighbors at the condo building woke up to a man in the buff running and yelling around their parking lot. Cellphone video captured the suspect attempting to cover his privates before he takes off running.
“Gentleman fighting on the balcony, and somebody beat him and threw him off the balcony naked,” the witness said. “The gentleman ran through the building area here, and he got on the back of a car, hanging out the back of a car, running down south to Golden Beach, and eventually, that’s where everything happened.”
This bizarre incident ended with Martin in handcuffs, and the car, police said, he stole became the center of a crime scene, which shut down traffic along A1A from the Lehman Causeway to Hallandale Beach Boulevard.
Surveillance video shows Martin walking around with no clothes on and then jumping onto the trunk of that car. According to police, he eventually got off at a nearby condo, stole a car and then led officers on a short chase down A1A until he stopped on the median near 193rd Street in Golden Beach.
“Officers attempted to perform a traffic stop. One of the officers was struck by the suspect in this stolen vehicle,” Hallandale Police Officer Ra Shana Dabney-Donovan said. “Our officer was forced to fire multiple shots, and the suspect, who was unharmed and who was not struck, entered the vehicle and took off again northbound on South Ocean Drive. As he attempted to cross the median, he got stuck, and then, he exited the vehicle and fled and was detained shortly after.”
The suspect and two officers were taken to the hospital. All are expected to be OK.
“We don’t have this anytime. It’s a quiet area,” said the witness.
It is unclear when Martin will be released from the hospital and be sent to jail. He is facing multiple charges, including attempted murder of a law enforcement officer.
The officers who confronted Martin have been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal affairs investigation.
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