33-Year-Old Man With Mental Health Issues Again Arrested After Crash with Injuries and 5 MPH Chase on U.S. 1

On Aug. 29, Kyle McNary, a 33-year-old resident of Wynfield Drive in palm Coast, was arrested on four charges, including battery on a law enforcement officer, as he was having a mental breakdown. He’d threatened to steal a sheriff’s deputy’s car. His parents had called authorities. He was taken to a local hospital, where he scuffled with deputies before he was Baker Acted. He bonded out of jail more than a week later. An article reporting on the incident at the time referred to him by a pseudonym.

McNary–his actual name–was re-arrested and returned to the jail without bond on Sept. 26 on several new charges after attacking his step-father, getting into a severe crash involving four other people, and leading sheriff’s deputies on a crawl of a chase at 5 miles per hour on U.S. 1.




McNary had been driving home with his stepfather that rainy evening in a black Kia Sorento when he began having what his step-father described to 911 as a “manic episode.” McNary would refuse to drive faster than 15 or 20 miles per hour, and did so more than defensively, as if he was fearing what was ahead. His step-father would reassure him, telling him the road was clear, but McNary would not follow his directions. At one point McNary left the car and ran on the road, waving at other cars, then got back in the car and kicked his step-father out.

Shortly afterward, at about 6:30 p.m., the 911 dispatch center received several calls about a severe crash. The 67-year-old driver of a white Chrysler told deputies that he’d been traveling in the right lane on U.S. 1 when the black Kia suddenly cut him off from the left and came to a complete stop, giving him no time to evade the vehicle in the pouring rain. The Chrysler rear-ended the Kia violently, causing injuries to some of the Chrysler’s occupants, who had to be hospitalized. One of the passenger is 9, another is 6. The third passenger, a 41-year-old woman, sustained “severe bodily injuries,” according to an arrest report. The crash took place at the intersection with Otis Hunter Road.

McNary then drove off, leaving the scene and drawing a felony charge of leaving the scene of a crash with a severe injury. Several sheriff’s deputies began pursuing McNary, whose Kia by then was crawling north at 5 mph. Patrol cars had their emergency lights activated, their sirens on. He would not pull over. Deputies issued several loud commands through speakers, to no avail. They deployed stop sticks at Whiteview Parkway, puncturing one of the Kia’s tires. McNary made a U-turn, continued driving for a distance, then swerved into the right shoulder grass and got stuck there. The rain was torrential. He would not get out of the car.




Deputies followed de-escalation protocols to ensure against undue violence. “You need to give him more space than you have right now,” came one command to deputies, telling them to back up their patrol car as McNary had swerved into the shoulder.

Deputies used a shatter ball to break the rear window. Only then, according to his arrest report, McNary put his arms up and eventually stepped out and complied with deputies’ commands. He was handcuffed as several deputies pointed long guns at him. The Bunnell Police Department and the Sheriff’s Office both issued different charges, including fleeing and eluding police, battery, obstruction, pre-trial release violation, and leaving the scene of a crash. His bond was revoked.