Last Updated: 6:45 p.m.
The situation in the 70 block of Parkvew Drive in Palm Coast had started at 12:30 p.m. when a woman called law enforcement to report she was being beaten up, choked and punched by her husband, and had been held against her will. She managed to escape the house, but not with her 2-year-old boy. The woman is also pregnant.
Flagler County Sheriff’s deputies converged around the house, including members of the SWAT team, setting up a perimeter and closing Parkview Drive for the next four and a half hours as they sought to find the man, who was possibly armed: the woman told deputies that there was a gun in the house.
There was, but it was not involved in the situation. The man, Brandon Quaid Still, was also facing a burglary charge in Texas, deputies later discovered. He was finally arrested after he walked up to a deputy just before 5 p.m., though Mark Strobridge, the chief spokesman for the sheriff’s office, noted: “I can’t say that he surrendered himself, because that’s not how it sounded.”
Still has been charged several times in Denton County, Texas. In August 2013, he was charged with imminent abandonment and endangerment of a child, domestic assault, burglary and other lesser charges.
Still’s wife did not want him charged, but by then it was no longer up to him. Still faces false imprisonment and aggravated assault charges–and extradition to Texas, once his case in Florida is disposed. He was being booked at the Flagler County jail this afternoon. He is expected to be held without bail because of the Texas issue.
The woman, Strobridge said, “was able to escape the house, leaving behind their her husband and their child.” Strobridge added: “This was not the first time that the two of them have been involved in domestic violence.”
The situation took hours to resolve because deputies were not sure at first where Still was in relation to the child, whether he was armed, or whether he would even involve the child. “It would not be the first time that people use children as shields in these situations,” Strobridge, who spent the bulk of his law enforcement career in the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, said. There are no indications that he ever did so, but “that’s why you move deliberately but you move cautiously in this process.”
A crisis-negotiating team was sent to the scene, as was a K-9 unit. There were several attempts to make contact with Still. None succeeded. As it turned out, he had not been in the house, but had been either on the property or nearby. For the victim, Strobridge said, “Escape sometime is the only avenue to seek help, because what we do know is he tried to keep her there against her will.”
SWAT Team members made entry into the home and moved through the house where they located the child crying in his crib, a sheriff’s release specified later this afternoon. SWAT Team members then removed the child from the home and continued their search. They found a handgun on a window sill.
“This was a tremendous effort by our Community Policy Division and a number of other specialized unit from our agency,” Sheriff Rick Staly was quoted as saying in the release. “I am thankful we were able to safely reunite the child with his mother and that no one was injured.”
Still has also been charged in Texas with drug possession, twice illegally carrying a weapon (in 2013 and 2014), driving on a suspended license with prior conviction, and, when he was 17, according to the Kilgore News Herald, an arrest for criminal mischief in 2009. Still is originally from Kilgore.
woodchuck says
The wife didn’t want to press charges?Next time she calls don’t respond.She only wants help then and now.Having more kids should help the problem.
Alsgal says
They didn’t know if guy was in the house, then why wasn’t Wadsworth Elementary on lock down?? Kids are there for after school programs etc what if this scumbag had a gun and was around the school!!!!
Eliza Luff says
You’ll need to read up on Battered Women & how they behave. They are locked between two worlds – one where they need safety and protection, the other where they still desperately love the abuser.
It’s very similar to the way a kid loves the parent who’s beating the hell out of them. Reasoning doesn’t work the same way with them as it would to you & me. So many will escape the immediate danger and then go right back to the abuser once the immediate crisis is over. Why? Extreme poverty, loss of the (abusive partner) that they love & grieve over and the rememberance of times when there wasn’t that abuse. Add that to the charms – yes, I do mean love and spirit of meekness & love – of the abuser who says “I’ll never do it again” as they go into what’s known as the “honeymoon period” where things are nice & loving for a time.
Study up on it – these things could be happening to someone very near you & you’ll never know it until she – or he – turns up with unexplained bruises. Don’t ever say it won’t happen to you because all too often, these things take a while to get to this point; it rarely just happens overnight. This is just a fraction of why it’s so hard to help domestic abuse victims.
Denise says
I hear what you’re saying, but being compassion-less doesn’t help either. Where’s your anger against the guy using her as a punching bag?
Is the wife making bad choices? Yes, it surely appears that way. But did it occur to you that maybe she had no other family and nowhere else to go at present? I’m with you, the last thing she needs to do is have another kid to this obvious jerk–and we all make our own choices, but some of us are smarter than others, and some of us have better opportunities than others to fix what’s broken in our lives.
Like the article also says, though, he’s got enough outstanding warrants that it doesn’t matter if she presses charges or not, he’s still in a lot of trouble.
All they need to do is put his dumb a** in jail where–at least based on the info here–he surely belongs. Then she has to step back and re-group. So try to have a little heart, willya? If this was your son or daughter, you wouldn’t be so cavalier about it.
Richard Smith says
Thank you Flagler County Sheriff Deputies for resolving this domestic situation safely without any bloodshed. It’s obvious with a rap sheet as long as his that he belongs in prison for an extended stay where possibly he can get the education to rehabilitate himself. If not well then he will most likely be back in prison for something that may require life without parole as these incidents usually escalate into a deadly situation. The wife and child need to get on with their lives without the danger of this sick individual making their lives miserable.
woodchuck says
“She picked him”A quote from Judge Judy.
Anonymous says
How did Palm Coast become a magnet for useless turds?
Gkimp says
Alsgal,
Let’s leave those decisions to the experts, they have experience assessing these situations and making the right call. No one is more aware of safety in schools than Law Enforcement officers. After all, many have kids in the system, so don’t panic unless the deputies pull their kids out and leave yours there, which will never happen.
I/M/O says
Alsgal says: “why wasn’t Wadsworth Elementary on lock down??”
Mr. Fanelli and Mrs. Minn as soon as they were contacted by a parent that there was police activity near the school immediately took action and placed the school on lockdown. The SRO assigned to cover Wadsworth and Buddy Taylor was a member on the activated Swat Team and had to leave the campuses. Sheriff Staley then sent other Deputies to both schools.
Buses who had left campus were recalled by radio. Students already lined up outside for dismissal were brought back into the school. Students who walk home were held at the school and their parents notified they had to be picked up. Other children were only released to a parent with a car. Hundreds of phone calls wer mde to notify parents as to what they had to do.
Parents at Wadsworth could not praise Principal Fanelli and his staff enough for their quick and decisive actions handling this situation.
Kudos to Mr. Fanelli, Mrs. Minn and the Teachers at Wadsworth for a job very well done.
Parents of students at Wadworth could not praise Mr. Fanelli and his staff enough that they handled the situation with expediency and prevented a panic. To be going through an ordinary dismissal and then suddenly finding themselves in an emergency situation the Administrators and staff at Wardsworth should be praised that their training to suddenly have to switch to lock down and maintaining the safety of students worked exactly as planned. Every staff member at Wadsworth knew what their assignments were and implemented them with precision in a calm, efficient and orderly process.
All of the community should be extremely grateful to the entire staff at Wadsworth. They handled the situation in an outstanding manner.
Stacey Smith says
Wadsworth was notified and all students were secured. Teachers and staff, myself included, stayed late to make sure each walker and car rider were personally released face to face with their parent. Mr. Fanelli did a wonderful job handling the situation at dismissal.
Anonymous says
Glad everyone is safe. CPS needs to follow up with the mother.
I/M/O says
Thank you Stacy Smith and the other members of the staff at Wadsworth.
Anonymous says
Buddy Taylor Was Locked Down By 12:47 By The Time I Was There For A Code Red Lockdown And If That I’m Pretty Sure Wadsworth Elementary Was Too