Last Updated: 11:24 a.m. Feb. 4 with details of the 911 calls.
The 48-year-old woman at the center of a standoff involving a U-Haul truck in Flagler Beach Monday may have been experiencing a mental health episode and delusional issues, according to details of her arrest that emerged today.
May Ling Ip, a resident of Northwest 6th Street in Gainesville, “called 911 and made numerous statements indicating emotional instability and possible delusional thinking,” according to a sheriff’s report, “including fears of arrest, claims of altered medical records, allegations that her family had been killed, and statements that she was dealing with ‘fake police.’”
In the call, Ip repeatedly refers to misfortunes, various agencies manipulating or destroying her records, the death of her parents, how her nephew was taken away from her, and how she was kicked out of a motel, among other issues, though it’s not always clear whether she is aware that she is speaking to a 911 dispatcher. She is in fear of her surroundings. She makes no reference to the person in the cab with her. (Listen to Ip’s 911 call here.)
The trigger of the incident on reports of the Ip’s suspicious behavior, especially after her initial interactions with a deputy, doesn’t appear to have been unreasonable.
The 911 dispatch center got a call about the U-Haul truck being parked under the Hammock Dunes Bridge, almost entirely blocking the pedestrian pathway. “The caller further reported that an individual was standing in front of the vehicle and exhibiting suspicious behavior,” according to Ip’s arrest report. The arrest report is inaccurate. The caller at no point referred to the individual as “suspicious,” but only answered the dispatcher’s question, saying someone was standing there. Twice the caller repeated that “this may be nothing,” and that she was only calling because “it just seemed odd to me” that the U-Haul was parked on the sidewalk. The caller was cheery, almost apologetic, and not fearful. She had just been driving by. (Listen to the call here.)
A bodycam video released by the Sheriff’s Office shows a deputy approaching the truck to check on the situation, and the moment he calls out a couple of times to identify himself in a non-threatening way (“Hello, Sheriff’s Office”), someone who had just been heard complaining about someone else taking her money is seen slamming the door of the truck. (See the released video footage at the foot of the article.)
The truck’s brake lights turned on as the deputy walked toward the passenger side from behind the truck, and as soon as the deputy tapped on the truck, again announcing himself and walking at a normal pace toward the passenger door, the truck suddenly lurched forward a short distance, as if playing cat and mouse with the deputy. Ip made eye contact with the deputy through the rearview mirror. The deputy walked a few more steps and banged on the truck, at which point the truck pulled out more aggressively and made a left, going south on State Road A1A.
What had begun at 7:45 a.m. Monday as a routine check on a vehicle illegally parked was now a more serious matter. “Based on the observed traffic violation and the possible domestic disturbance occurring inside the vehicle, I initiated a traffic stop near North Ocean Shore Boulevard and Island Estates Parkway by activating my marked patrol vehicle’s emergency lights and siren,” the deputy reported. There was another brief cat-and-mouse interaction as the truck seemed to comply, only to get back into traffic and continue south. “I therefore had probable cause to believe the operator was willfully fleeing and attempting to elude law enforcement,” the deputy reported.
Flagler Beach police were contacted and deployed stop sticks, forcing the truck to a stop near North 18th Street. The standoff began.
The provided video is not continuous. Almost two hours after the initial contact under the bridge, Ip is seen seated at the truck’s controls, ignoring requests on a PA system–delivered in an even tone of voice–to “open the door, raise your hands and get out of the car.” In footage captured by a drone, Ip, her window halfway down, is seen casually brushing her teeth and spitting into in a can.
The arrest report notes that the operator of the drone “observed both occupants utilizing smoking devices commonly associated with controlled substances.” By then a BearCat had been positioned in front of the truck, and a patrol car behind it, and the SWAT team was at the scene.
A deputy trained in crisis negotiations established contact by phone with Ip, but only briefly. She hung up. Three minutes after she was seen brushing her teeth, a deputy fired a less-lethal round at the side mirror on the passenger side as the man who had been riding with Ip covered himself in a blanket, evidently frightened. As the occupants continued to stay in the truck, deputies deployed “a chemical agent” into the passenger compartment, prompting Ip to exit and run across the road and down a walkover toward the ocean.
Corporal Andrew Cangialosi and K-9 Guapo quickly caught up with her in the sand and deputies handcuffed her, carrying her back up the steps. There is a gap of three minutes and 45 seconds between the moment she was apprehended and the footage showing her being carried up the steps.
“Are you trying to bite me?” a deputy is heard saying to her. “Sergeant Van Pelt advised that while carrying May up the dune crossover, she attempted to bite him in the groin area,” the report states. The report continues: “May actively resisted arrest by tensing her body, clenching her fists, pulling away, kicking, and refusing to comply with physical control techniques. May wrapped her legs around Sergeant [Ronald] Mello’s legs and later kicked him in the abdomen/upper leg area with her left foot. Due to continued violent resistance, May was placed in leg restraints and a hobble device.”
Meanwhile the man in the truck had complied with commands and stepped out, apparently after another K-9, Mako, was sent into the cab. The dog’s deployment is not on video. The man’s apprehension outside the truck is. Deputies found less than 20 grams of pot in the truck.
Ip was charged with three felonies and three misdemeanors. The felonies are aggravated assault, battery on a law enforcement officer and fleeing police, all third-degree felonies. She is being held without bond on the aggravated assault charge and on $22,500 bond on the remaining charges. The man in the truck was charged with a misdemeanor count of resisting an officer. He’s being held on 2,500 bond. They are to be arraigned on Feb. 24.
Laurel says
So that’s how Flagler County Sheriff’s Dept handle the mentally ill for parking under a bridge. Three felonies and four misdemeanors, shoot out their mirrors, two K9s and a swat team: scare the shit out of them.
So where does the de-escalation training come in? We’ll, I guess they’re both alive, unlike the Minnesota citizens.
ED says
Mentally ill or not, they’re adults and have to conform for ALL OUR Safety!
Laurel says
Sorry ED, but you contradicted yourself.
ED says
No contra diction just facts.
Big Mike says
Laurel why do you dislike the FCSO so much? Is it just FCSO or law enforcement in general? The time that you may need them to come to help you in a time of need, you may regret all the negative comments on here….sad
Laurel says
Sad Big Mike: I don’t dislike the FCSO, as you say. I just no longer trust them. When the Florida Sheriffs sign on to be in cahoots with our corrupt federal government, with their Gestapo tactics in play, with U.S. citizens shot dead in the streets, why should I trust them? Just stop anyone over some unknown, unproven “suspicion”?
So, are you threatening me with “you may regret all the negative comment on here…”? It sure sounds like a threat. Are you in law enforcement?
Diane says
This article indicates the woman ‘may have been experiencing a mental health episode and delusional issues’ whose behavior ultimately led up to her apprehension and arrest. What I would expect to see reported in the article is whether she received or was referred to a medical and/or behavioral specialist for further evaluation upon being detained. Simply stating she is being held without bond implies she would be just placed in a cell for two weeks until a court a hearing. This is misleading to the reader. (If that information is not available at the time of publication, that should be stated. Then followed up on, if possible.) Having a mental illness is nothing to be ashamed of, but how we treat those who do speaks volumes about us.
FlaglerLive says
Ip is at the county jail. The jail is not a mental health facility. It has a medical provider, with mental health evaluations part of the screening.
Skibum says
Could very well be mental health issues. Could be long term drug abuse, or a combination of the two. What matters most to me is that the woman certainly was not in a coherent, emotionally stable enough condition to be behind the wheel of that U-Haul truck on the road. Had she acted in a normal, rational manner during the initial encounter with law enforcement when the deputy approached the truck under the Hammock Dunes bridge, it likely would have been resolved much differently than how it ended alongside A1A in Flagler Beach.
Deputies didn’t escalate the encounter… the driver did by driving off after ignoring the attempt to contact her, refusing to stop after the deputy activated the patrol car’s lights and siren, turning a simple encounter into a felony crime of fleeing and eluding law enforcement.
All the way to the end of this incident, law enforcement were using appropriate tactics and procedures, reacting to the vehicle occupants’ non-compliance. They had no idea who they were dealing with, whether or not the occupants were armed, what they were going to do if deputies approached the cab of that truck, and so they utilized the minimal amount of force necessary under the circumstances presented to them to effect the arrests of those two individuals in the safest manner for the two occupants AND the deputies.
It dos not escape me that at least one commenter who I respect has said that she does not have any trust in law enforcement due to all of the misconduct, egregious behavior and brutality we all have been witnessing by federal law enforcement agents. As I stated previously, and it is starting to bear out in real time, people are losing confidence and trust in our local law enforcement because of it, and that has real, very negative consequences for society and law enforcement in particular.
Laurel says
Hey Skibum: I am very glad you responded; I was hoping you would. You actually made me feel somewhat better about the episode as you know more about such things than I do. So, thank you.
The problem I have is I believe our Sheriff is maga, and with what’s going on today in this country, that’s not good from my perspective. White people are just now getting a whiff of what black people go through at the possibility of being pulled over by law enforcement. I know you know what I mean. That’s where the word “woke” came from, to be aware, not to mean whatever a Republican politician wants it to mean on any given whim and day.
To me, the action still seems over the top, and in today’s atmosphere, very frightening. If it weren’t during the Trump admin, with incompetent people in charge, I probably would have never read the article, and never commented. But I did comment, and got overtly aggressive responses from Big Mike and Mike, that was uncalled for. Such commenting at a old lady is unsettling. It certainly does not help. It makes me wonder where they were coming from.
So, if I do get pulled over, and the officer doesn’t have an ID that states “Skibum,” I will still be concerned for my well being! So that’s how it is, and I don’t have expectations of the current situation to get better soon. With three more years of this off the charts behavior, it will probably get worse. I wish it wouldn’t.
Trump’s damage to law enforcement has already begun.
Skibum says
Laurel, nobody can blame you for the way you feel. Not only are you not alone, but even I, as a retired law enforcement officer who knows what to expect if I were ever stopped here in FL (I haven’t been), might be surprised or worse, embarrassed about how such an encounter might go with the current environment in mind.
I do think our local deputies use restraint and are professional in their contacts and interactions with the public. I can’t speak to the politics of the sheriff himself, but for what it’s worth, I don’t get the impression that he is one of those extremist maga types, although most elected sheriffs throughout the state are probably republicans and conservative because that is the nature of the beast for the majority of all law enforcement in general… enlightened ones like me being the exception to the rule LOL.
Oceanside says
Correction–the final showdown occurred at N 15th St, not N 18th St as this article claims.
JimboXYZ says
The human race is a mentally ill bunch, that ship sailed a long time ago. Dad once explained it to me as a child as part of the parenting process, a society for degrees of mental retardation, some are higher functioning retards. The trick in life is to stay grounded enough to know that there is an ICD-9/ICD-10 that classifies even the most delusional of the narcissistic of any human being. Some think Trump is that level, but compared to Biden, which of the 2 were/are the most obvious to even the most casual of unprofessional, non-certified observers ? And since everyone’s healthcare records are private & protected, one has to discover anyone’s mental illnesses/physical & psychological afflictions, as they are revealed with repeated abnormal behavior. Think of that as governmental interventions of Baker Acting those that hide it better than others.
While there is nothing wrong with pulling off to the side of the road to take a break from a relocation in a U-Haul, it went wrong for FCSO just being concerned enough to investigate their well being. I think anyone that watches the video would see that the driver & passenger in the U-Haul were avoiding discovery. The woman brushed her teeth in the moment to mask her breath & avoid discovery of what she might be on for substance abuse ? Years ago “bath salts” was a thing in Miami, FL, people were trying to eat other people under the influence of that. Toxicology showed traces of Marijuana in his system.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami_cannibal_attack
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_salts_(drug)
Regardless, whatever it takes to keep the rest of us safer as the relatively saner population, I have no problem with the way this went down & was handled. As Palm Coast grows, the crime diseases will become a new norm in this community. Welcome to Alfinville, FL & a Vision of 2050, what I’ve maintained would happen, that politicians seem to spin as “growing pains”.
Laurel says
Ya know, if I screwed up as many words talking, as I did typing, I would be a woman of few words!
“Skibum.” How does “Skibim” get past this rebellious autocorrect and spell check?
Ah! It did again! Oh well. Oh, and I got a response of “unapproved comments not allowed.” Cocktail hour!