Dakota S. Walls, an 18-year-old resident of 18 Union Mill Place in Palm Coast, is at the Flagler County jail Monday, on a charge of battery on a person older than 65, a third-degree felony, following a confrontation at CVS pharmacy on Palm Coast Parkway early Friday morning (Feb. 14).
According to an 18-year-old woman and neighbor of Walls’s who spoke with police the morning of the incident, Walls called her and asked her to give him a drive to the F Section after he had crashed his mother’s Kia on Seminole Woods Parkway near Universal Trail. Sheriff’s deputies later verified that the car had, in fact, been crashed.
As the woman was driving Walls to the F Section, he asked that she stop at the CVS so he could buy a phone charger. The woman gave Walls $20 and waited in the car.
That morning Wayne Ross, 71, was working at CVS. He told a Flagler County Sheriff’s deputy that he saw Walls trying to steal a phone charger by prying it out of its packaging, according to Walls’s arrest report. Ross approached Walls and asked him to return the charger, which Walls did, before offering to pay for the merchandise. Walls then left the store and got back into the car, where the woman was waiting for him. Walls, according to the woman, told her that “the guy” had taken his money, but when she questioned Walls as to how that had been possible, Walls said, “hold on,” and went back to the store.
Walls returned to Walls saying he had $20 to pay for the charger. Ross scanned the item and told Walls that it was $16.05.
At that point, Walls, according to Ross, got angry, and told Ross to “give me back my motherfucking money.” Ross told Walls that he never gave him any money. Walls repeated the obscenity. Surveillance camera footage would later show “absolutely no exchange of currency” as Walls and Ross exchanged words near the cash register, according to the arrest report.
Ross then told Walls that he would be calling police so the issue could be resolved civilly. Walls then left the store again and went back to the car, where he told the woman, “this guy is really trying me.”
Ross came out of the store and told the woman at the wheel of the car to wait so he could contact police to help straighten out the issue. Walls again exited the car and confronted Ross, according to the report, repeating again the obscenity about the money. When Ross again said that no money had been exchanged, Walls, according to Ross, cursed and struck him in the left side of the face with a closed fist. Ross then staggered back into the store, with a 2-inch laceration to his left ear and what would soon turn into a bruised and swollen left side of the face.
Walls then shouted at the woman to drive away, but the woman instead locked the car doors and went to check on Ross’s wellbeing, according to the report. The physical altercation was not caught on surveillance footage, as it had taken place outside the store.
Walls left the scene, but at 2:15, a deputy found a man matching Walls’s description directly across the street from CVS. “I approached the subject and saw that his right hand was covered in blood,” the deputy relates in the arrest report. “I then detained the subject in handcuffs.” Walls was arrested and charged with battery on a person over 65. He remains at the Flagler County jail on $2,000 bond.
In a separate, unrelated incident the following day (Feb. 15) around noon, Karen Breen, a 51-year-old resident of Medford Drive in Palm Coast, was arrested and charged on a similar charge—battery on a person over 65—after committing the alleged offense against her parents and in front of a Flagler County Sheriff’s deputy.
The deputy, Nancy Malheiros, was dispatched to the home of Joseph Kirchner, 85, and his wife, Joyce Kirchner, 72, following a verbal altercation between the parents and their daughter. Breen had been staying at her parents’ house. But the parents told the deputy that they were in the process of evicting her. The deputy told them that law enforcement could not evict an individual absent the proper documentation.
As the deputy was speaking with the parents, Breen came out of her room and asked if she could go to the kitchen. The deputy told her to wait until she was finished speaking with the parents. Soon, Malheiros told Breen that it was OK to go to the kitchen, but the deputy advised Breen to do her best to be respectful and avoid any more altercations.
Malheiros and Breen’s parents were speaking in the living room when Breen entered the kitchen and an argument erupted, according to the police report. As Breen was leaving the kitchen, the report states, she “walked in between Joseph and Karen, bumping them from behind simultaneously, almost causing the both of them to fall to the ground.”
The deputy immediately placed Breen under arrest and charged her with aggravated battery on a person over 65. Breen remained at the jail on Monday, on $2,000 bond.
Mike says
What the hell is wrong with people? I’m in my 30’s and if I ever even raised my voice to my elders there would be hell to pay. I swear, this generation (16-25) year-olds of today are just off. I don’t know if it’s the parents, drugs, video games, or what. But more and more of this crap is going on. Sure we cussed and yelled and were obnoxious as hell when we were teens, but NEVER with people older than us. You just didn’t do it.
orphan says
There is no possible way that I will throw my hands in the air and scream to the heavens that ‘something is wrong with these people’!
What is WRONG with these people is that they have learned that our penal system is useless! Until the legislatures of our country start being serious about crime (from juvies forward) these situations will only increase. I’m not spouting words that try to compare with the ‘Moses on the mount’ situation-I’m saying that until this country gets back to the basic rule of law that says (as we so rhythmically like to put it) “Do the crime-do the time). I don’t see it happening. YET IT NEEDS TO HAPPEN!
I have NEVER understood why the various policing agencies around the country are having to deal with third-sixth-twelfth-whatever number violators! An intelligent mind has to be forgiven for not accepting the current lawlessness in our country.
Oh yes. Some of us will survive, but wouldn’t it be so much better if we ALL survived?
Mary Cannady says
Thank God Walls did not have a gun on him.
Anonymous says
these young kids have no respect for their elder, what a shame.
NortonSmitty says
And thank God Ross didn’t have one on him either.
Bill says
Not totally true the “young kid” the 18 yr old woman went to the aid of Mr Ross
Genie says
We need lessons in how to care for our fellow man. Time to bring the 10 Commandments back? They worked for generations.
Too many people growing up in this country without values of any kind. We’ve all been told they’re politically incorrect.
sue says
This is what you get when you let RIFF – RAFF into Palm Coast,where there are NO JOBS.
Mike says
I went to school with Walls. He was always getting in trouble in school.
Chance says
Walls was like a brother to me but he started going down hill with drugs. I never would think he would have done somthing like this. Im praying for his mom.
Kayleigh says
Walls & I had something going i still feel that this is my fault, walls was coming to the F section t get me because i was scared to stay at a friends house and he tried to take his moms car to get me and he crashed it, then the next day i was informed that he got a ride to CVS and did all of this non sense. If i had dent asked him to pick me up this would have never happened. Yes he has committed a crime does not mean he needs to be bashed on, he is still 18 & still learning he is only a young adult some people don’t grow out of this till they are 35. I still think walls needs to go to classes to help him with his drinking problems and drug problems i really want to help him, because deep down he is a nice sweet guy, but as soon as he gets ahold of any drugs or alcohol. Please pray for his mom and his family!!
Seminole Pride says
These kids have there priorities all turned around. First of all they don’t need to be borrowing money from other people when they have they have no resources to pay it back. Second, they don’t need a phone card. His Mother should not be allowing him to use her car unless he is providing, and making car payments and insurance payments. Nothing wrong with riding a bike for his means of transportation.
Anonymous says
I would like to thank you so much for your comment. It melted my heart and put me into tears even though it was only one simple sentence. I am that 18 year old woman who drove Dakota. When I was driving Dakota I was beyond scared. I had no idea any of this would happen. Dakota was just determined to pick up an other girl who was scared. When Dakota hit the cvs guy I felt my world crash. Seeing someone you love ruin their life with bad choices is so hard. I have known Dakota for almost 7 years now, we grew up together and I love him very much. He came to me for a ride because we live just a street away. For years now I have watched Dakota slowly ruin his life and it kills me more and more each day. I have tried being there for him and help any way I could. I let him have the twenty dollars because money means nothing to me. I just want everyone to know that Dakota is a good person but he changes under the influence just as everyone else does. He’s had a hard life for only being 18 and I honestly pray that this helps him turn his life around. I am praying for him every night.
Anonymous says
I hope Mr. Walls gets some serious drug and alcohol counseling. It sounds like he needs it. Please, friends and family, if you really love him, THIS is what you will urge him to do. Also, Al-Anon and Alateen may be a great help to the friends and family of Mr. Walls, whether he, himself, seeks treatment or not.
mother says
I am Dakota’s mom and you have no right to bring me in the mix. It was in the middle of the night and I was asleep, you know things people do in the middle of the night? I did not even know it was gone until morning. You dont know me and you sure in the hell dont know my son.
mother says
He is getting help I am making sure of it.
mother says
I get real tired of hearing it is the parents fault. I am a single mother and I do the best that I can for my children. I cannot be in control of every move my children make when they get older. I was brought up strict and kids when I was young got away with stuff too. No one on this site can say they have never in there life done anything stupid that they regretted doing.
mother says
Who are you to call anyone riff-raff? I suppose you have never done anything in your life you regret? Never made a mistake you had to learn from? People in glass houses shouldnt throw stones. This is also to anyone who will like to talk about my son. (1) you dont personally know him. (2) he is kind hearted and would do anything to help anyone. (3) he has saved 3 people in his life from fires, one of them being a baby. (4) He would never hurt anyone on purpose (5) he made his mistake, he has to pay for it,and learn from it. If every one went to jail for doing something stupid we as a society would have all been in jail. I am not condoning what he did I feel for the man that this happened to but myself and my family do not need to be condemned for this.
mother says
He was brought up with values. Bring the 10 commandments back ! there will be a lot more people in jail.
mother says
thank you honey
mother says
This was not his second, fifth, or twelfth time, it was his first. If you did something bad that you regretted wouldnt you want at least one chance to make it right?