Editor’s Note: We have updated this story.
PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. (WMBB) — A Bay County man learned a hard lesson Tuesday about violating the county’s double red flag ordinance.
He was in the water with his boogie board and refusing to get out. He couldn’t escape the long arm of the law or a bystander with a cell phone.
Panama City resident, Garrison Fraser Creamer, was allegedly swimming on a double red flag day and refusing to obey deputies’ commands to get out.
According to officials, he stayed in the water for about 25 minutes and made hand gestures making it very clear he didn’t want to comply. Another resident recorded the ordeal capturing how quickly things escalated.
“At first we thought that he was in distress,” said Jody Morgan, the resident who captured the incident. “Another deputy pulled out in another truck and they were motioning for him to come in and he kept waving his arms. Well, come to find out, the man wasn’t in distress. He was just waving them away. He was like, no, I’m good. Well, they kept saying, ‘Come in.’ He was like, I’m good.”
When Creamer did get out of the gulf, he tried escaping from deputies. His attempt was unsuccessful.
“The male ended up coming back on shore and we were still down on shore waiting for him,” said Bay County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Jared Turner. “He began to run off. He ran from Deputy Nelson. I gave chase as well as Deputy Nelson, and we ultimately were able to get him on the dunes and do him on the dune.”
Law enforcement is exhausted by the volume of double red flag violations they’ve had to respond to this past week.
“I’m tired of having to get people out of the water, for sure. It’s a repetitive thing. Yeah, we’ve dealt with some people,” Turner said. “We’ll give them courtesy warnings and then the citations book comes out and they get upset because we issued a foreclosure citation and they have everything around them to tell them to get out of the water, to stay out of the water, and they still choose to fight anyway.”
Creamer was charged with resisting and obstructing law enforcement officers as well as battery of a law enforcement officer. He was issued a citation for a double red flag violation.
A previous version of our story is below:
BAY COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB) — A man was arrested Tuesday after attempting to flee from Bay County Sheriff’s Office deputies.
According to an arrest affidavit by the BCSO, Garrison Creamer entered the Gulf of Mexico while double red flags were flying and was approached by two BCSO deputies at Beach Access 85.
Deputies state that they gave Creamer multiple commands to exit the water for his safety and Creamer refused.
25 minutes later Creamer exited the water. Deputies approached Creamer once more and ordered him to stop walking. Creamer then began to flee on foot.
In a video captured by a bystander, Creamer was shown striking a deputy with his bodyboard before he was apprehended.
Creamer was arrested and charged with violation of double red flag ordinance, obstruction of justice, and resisting and battery on an officer. His bond has not been set.
