According to his live-in girlfriend, Fred Demesmin, a 21-year-old resident of Hardy Street in Bunnell, had been sleeping badly or not at all for several nights and acting strange. Early Monday morning he’d told his girlfriend that “demons were after him and that he needed to go out and kill someone,” according to his arrest report.
He did go out before dawn. He didn’t kill anyone. But he allegedly attacked at least two individuals who felt threatened by his behavior, and he attacked a cash register at the Sunoco station at the corner of State Road 100 and U.S. 1 in Bunnell. It took a police officer firing his Taser to subdue and arrest Demesmin after a brief chase up U.S. 1 Monday morning, and many shouts from Demesmin along the lines of “I hate America” and “I love Haiti.”
Police were first alerted to a problem in Bunnell when a witness and business owner in Bunnell reported to 911 that a black man wearing a white shirt and a white bandanna attacked his employee’s vehicle as he drove by. The employee thought the man was armed with a gun. (No gun was subsequently found.)
Immediately after that incident, Demesmin had gone into the Sunoco station’s convenience store, where Lee Molkentin, the 44-year-old store clerk, was working. While Molkentin was in back of the store he heard the front door open and a man’s voice shout “hey.” When Molkentin walked back to the front of the store he saw Demesmin—whom he described as a black man wearing a white shirt and a bandanna wrapped around his face—standing by the door. Molkentin said Demesmin was holding a metal bar in his hand. When Demesmin noticed the clerk, he becgan screaming, “I hate America” and swinging and pointing the metal bar at him.
Molkentin feared for his life, he told police, so he quickly ran behind the counter to push the alarm button. Demesmin then began striking the counter with the metal bar, breaking the cash register display and allegedly trying to break the credit card machine. The clerk then called 911, at which point Demesmin left the store and started walking north on State Street.
A Bunnell police officer and several Flagler County Sheriff’s Office deputies were converging on the business when they saw a man matching the description of the suspect provided to 911. The man was carrying an unknown object in his hand, wearing the bandana matching the earlier description, and walking north on U.S. 1, also known as State Street in downtown Bunnell.
Two deputies made contact with the man, who turned out to be Demesmin, and ordered him to stop several times. Demesmin, according to his arrest report, dropped the object he was carrying but started running north, away from the deputies. The two deputies set chase after him. Meanwhile, Austin Chewning, the Bunnell police officer who’d gotten the original call, tried to intercept Demesmin with his patrol car, pulling the vehicle directly in Demesmin’s way. Demesmin stopped running and started walking, his hands in the air, but still not stopping. At that point Chewning took out his Taser and fired, striking Demesmin in the center of the back. The arrest report does not make clear why the Taser prongs struck Demesmin in the back, when the officer had positioned his car in front of Demesmin initially.
The use of the Taser subdued Demesmin, who was arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, criminal mischief and resisting arrest without violence, and carrying a concealed weapon. Tuesday afternoon he remained at the Flagler County jail on $1,500 bond on the latter three charges, and no bond yet set on the aggravated assault charge.
Demesmin three years ago was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a child and holding a house party. He successfully completed a deferred prosecution agreement, so the charges were dropped.
The Truth says
Simple solution: send him back to Haiti.
Howard Duley says
Your comment beat me to the punch. I was thinking exactly the same thing. Most likely he is being government subsidized here and would starve in Haiti.
THE VOICE OF REASON says
I shoot somebody in the back (even a Taser) and I go to jail.
cm says
sooo you would rather the police not intercept this individual and allow him to continue threatening store employees and the general public? He deserved a taser to the face.
The Truth says
This is such a ridiculous statement. The man was unstable and had made threats to kill someone that day. The police department acted very appropriately given the circumstances.
groot says
Oh those demons! Tin foil hats help. Maybe we could deport him? Solves the problem of him liking Haiti and hating the US and we’re better off without him. A simple case of addition by subtraction.
Rational says
He deserves medical attention.
Matanzas Mom says
Rational is right! He needs help; this is not the Fred Demesmin we have known for many years. Hope he gets the attention he needs.
Frank Matts says
The voice of reason needs to spend some time out on the streets.
Oldseadog says
I say GOD BLESS AMERICA…………..
We are quite willing to spend the $ required to help the mentally ill who need such help.
Jon Dopp says
@ voice of reason-
YOU are not expected to confront and detain irrational and dangerous people. YOU have the option of leaving the area for a safe place. The police do not have that option and are expected to take people like this into custody so they don’t hurt themselves or someone else. Sometimes, that means force must be applied to accomplish this goal. Be grateful that there are men and women out there willing to confront these dangers on your behalf so that you can enjoy the option of walking away from danger while you criticize how they protected the community .
Police yourself says
Mr. Dopp you are a public servant, it’s a job you get a paycheck your not doing it for free. Stop acting like your some super hero out for the good of mankind. Trigger happy, overzealous cops go to work just like you and that doesn’t make them officer friendly or good cops. Find another line of work if your answer to an aggressive, mental person is violence. It’s amazing the mental hospitals don’t use half the force police use when the disturbed lose it and they deal with them all day! Just admit it you need more training or proper training. Every incident you get irked about doesn’t require a taser or gun especially for someone’s who’s brain is not processing the situation properly to begin with it’s going to turn violent every time.
Anonymous says
Be willing to bet anything the man is Bipolar…and possibly unwittingly medicating himself with all the wrong substances.
stan says
the man is lost and needsjesus christ as his lord and saviour forget this bipolar garbage
man is born in sin and shapen in inniquity. jesus saves sinners john14-6
getwithit says
THE POOR KID, HE WANTS TO GO BACK TO HIS COUNTRY. HE WAS PROBABLY BROUGHT TO AMERICA AGAINST HIS WILL BECAUSE SOMEONE THOUGHT HE WOULD BE BETTER OFF IN AMERICA. BUNNELL, FL IS NOT THE BEST PLACE TO BE. LORD HAVE MERCY ON HIS SOUL.
Footballen says
Actually the most frequently diagnosed mental health disorder involving serious paranoia and hallucinations is schizophrenia and it often on sets in the early 20’s. Those with this disorder can become extremely delusional and very dangerous individuals left unmedicated. The main issue is that patients often do not like the side effects of the medication once they are stabilized and decide that they no longer need the medicine and stop on their own. It takes up to several weeks back on the medication to re-stabilize each patient.
Footballen says
There is no real mental health option out there, these people are usually left to the jail and prison system to be treated.
sonny says
sent him back to Haiti so he can get medical help there not here and have us American pay for his treatment there’s to many American they need treatment and can’t get it
Some one says
What’s weird is he used to live with me when he was homeless and my family took him in he was a bit weird and stuff and I’m glad he is gone before he did all that because God for bid my family could have been dead!
Anonymous says
Doesn’t he work at the Hammock Beach resort?