VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. – Deputies and police engaged in a chase with and eventually arrested a drug dealer Thursday night who used the child in his car as a shield when confronted by officers, according to the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies said they were in the area of Ridgewood and Mason avenues around 11 p.m. “looking for a silver Toyota Camry that had fled from an attempted traffic stop the night prior.”
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As soon as the car was spotted, the driver — Tyrell J. Jackson, 31 — sped away.
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A Holly Hill officer then located the abandoned vehicle in the backyard of a Daytona Beach house, located at 940 Gardenia Drive, the sheriff’s office said.
The officer then said he noticed Jackson banging on the back door of the house, yelling “Hurry up!”
According to deputies, when the officer “drew his Taser and ordered the man to stop,” the suspect held the 4-year-old, who was in the vehicle as he was fleeing, between himself and the officer before entering the house with the child.
Deputies said they began searching the area, eventually finding Jackson under a blanket inside a vacant house at 967 Gardenia Drive.
“In the car, deputies found a backpack on the driver’s floorboard containing two bricks of heroin/fentanyl along with about 12 grams in powder form, about 161 grams of meth, several MDMA tablets and Acetaminophen and Oxycodone Hydrochloride pills. Also in the bag was Jackson’s wallet with his credit cards and bank receipts. In the driver’s door pocket, there was a plastic bag with about 5 grams of crack cocaine. In the back seat, deputies found a child’s jacket with the child’s name on the tag,” the sheriff’s office said in a release.
Jackson is facing multiple charges, including drug trafficking and possession, fleeing or attempting to elude law enforcement and child neglect.
He was booked in the Volusia County jail Friday without bond.