In Month of Spiking Violence Against Police, 2 Palm Coast Men Arrested Separately For Threatening or Battering Cops

Two Palm Coast men were arrested in separate incidents over the Thanksgiving weekend involving direct threats of harming or killing cops, among other charges that, in both cases, involved allegedly drunk men.

The arrests—and alleged threats—coincide with a sharp rise late this year in violence against police across the country, and with a year that’s so far seen 61 police officers shot and killed in the line of duty, compared to 41 in 2015. Deaths by gunfire are up 64 percent this year, and though the month is not over yet, November registered 20 cops’ deaths in the line of duty, more than any other month this year.

Earlier this morning Jarret Register, a 24-year-old resident of 200 Riverfront Drive in Palm Coast, was booked at the county jail on charges of disorderly conduct at Smiles, the bar on Palm Harbor Village Way, and for threatening to shoot one of his arresting deputies with a “30 ought 6” (that is, a .30-06) round to the chest, according to his arrest report. (An earlier version of this report incorrectly placed the bar at European Village.)

Late last night Register had been drinking at Smiles when patrons found it necessary to escort him out of the bar. The bartender told Flagler County Sheriff’s deputies that he’d gotten drunk on several beers and “began to harass and antagonize other patrons,” according to his arrest report. Surveillance video shows him starting an argument and attempting to swing a chair at the man sitting next to him. That’s when patrons intervened, stopping the confrontation from escalating further.

Register was hiding in bushes when deputies arrived and took off on foot when a bystander pointed him out, though it was a very brief pursuit. “During the investigation [Register] became extremely belligerent with deputies on scene,” the report states, yelling at deputies even as he was trying to tell what happened, and calling them “pussy bitches.” Many patrons at Smiles came out to witness the incident and capture it on their phones as the agitation continued. Cops repeatedly told Register to keep quiet and lean against a patrol car then placed him inside the car, where he made the threat to shoot one of the deputies “if he were to catch me at a traffic light,” the deputy reported.

Register then started kicking the patrol car’s partition with so much violence that it set off the alarm in the vehicle. He was charged with disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor, and threats toward law enforcement, a felony. He was booked at half-past midnight, and less than three hours later, he’d bonded out.

The other incident took place the morning of Nov. 23, the day before Thanksgiving, as a consequence of a car crash at mile marker 292 on I-95. It involved Anthony Banks, a 42-year-old resident of 26 Felter Lane in Palm Coast.

According to his arrest report, he told a Florida Highway Patrol trooper that he’d left Walmart in Palm Coast with a passenger, whom he was driving to work, when he lost control. The crash caused a roadblock and resulted in serious injuries to the passenger, Jose Valerio, who suffered broken ribs and internal bleeding.

As troopers investigated, they found Banks to be reeking of alcohol, and he had trouble maintaining his balance to the point that he had to sit on the ground to keep talking, though he had “multiple mood swings from angry and rude to apologetic.” He was bleeding from his hand, wrist and arms as he had climbed out of a broken window right after the crash (which caused an extensive roadblock on the Interstate). Soon cops discovered that he was driving on a suspended license.

He refused to conduct field sobriety exercises, and when asked to stand up and place his hands behind his back, so he could be arrested, he refused as well. Troopers tried to force him up until he said he’d do it on his own, only to allegedly strike one of the troopers on the leg and push him away, according to the arrest report. Troopers managed to place the handcuffs on him but a struggle continued even as they tried to seat him in a patrol car, all along making “making vulgar statements regarding race, age and complaints” to the trooper as he was being driven to the county jail.

At the jail Banks, the trooper reported, “made eye contact with me and threatened me multiple times, saying “I will find you when I get out’ and ‘I’ll see you on the outside punk ass motherfucker.’” The trooper sought a breathalyzer test but Banks refused. Jail personnel then told the trooper that because of his injuries, Banks had to be medically cleared from Florida Hospital Flagler before he could be booked in. So the trooper took Banks to the hospital—a relatively quiet ride until banks again reportedly became belligerent again at the hospital, where the trooper had to summon back-up  to escort him onto the emergency room. He got X-rays and stitches before finally being booked at the jail at 4:30 p.m., some six hours after the crash.

Banks was charged with his third drunk-driving violation within 10 years, making it a felony, drunk driving with property damage, drunk driving with serious bodily injury to another, a felony, battery on a police officer, a felony, and several misdemeanors. He remains at the county jail on $45,000 bond.