Telegraph Staff Writer
STARKE— An encounter with a Domino’s Pizza delivery driver escalated into a confrontation with deputies and a standoff with a SWAT team in Melrose.
Bradford County Sheriff Gordon Smith said deputies eventually resorted to tear gas to force Ryan Cain Newell from his Midway-area home on Thursday, January 5.
Deputies arrested the 36-year-old for aggravated assault, resisting an officer, false imprisonment, and an Alachua County arrest warrant for a probation violation.
According to an arrest report, a Domino’s Pizza delivery driver told deputies that she drove to the Southeast 28th Way home with an order from the business’s mobile app.
When she arrived at the house around 10 p.m. on Wednesday, the porch light was not on, and when Newell opened the front door, he got into “a shooting stance.”
“(The driver) advised Newell was approximately five yards from (her),” wrote arresting officer T. Lovell in the report. “(The driver) observed an object that appeared to be a gun and was in fear that she was going to be shot. (While the driver) was backing away out of fear for her safety, Newell stated, ‘it’s a fake gun.’”
When deputies went to the home to investigate the driver’s claims, Newell opened the door, then immediately shut it. Moments later, a family member opened the door and told the lawmen that Newell’s actions were just a joke.
“When asked if Newell was exiting the residence, (the family member said) he would not come out and said he did nothing wrong,” wrote Lovell.
Another resident of the house told a deputy through a rear glass door that Newell was preventing anyone from leaving the residence and that the defendant was using one occupant as a shield.
Smith later identified the human shield as a 14-year-old child.
Deputies persuaded Newell to release the three occupants, leaving the defendant in the home alone.
Officers then deployed a chemical agent into the residence to force the defendant from the house.
The gas eventually forced Newell out. Smith said he ran out of the house screaming and refused commands to get down on his knees.
A beanbag round from a shotgun halted the defendant’s advance.
Smith said a family member told him the defendant refused to leave the home because of past experiences with law enforcement.
“In speaking with her,” Smith said, “he’s been incarcerated several times. Looking at his criminal history, he’s had a lot of violence: assaults, battery, those types of things.”
Smith said he and his officers proceeded cautiously to avoid a gun battle in the neighborhood with other homes nearby.
“We spent quite a bit of time trying to negotiate to get him to come out,” the sheriff said. “Then we deployed tear gas, negotiated again, deployed some more gas, negotiated again, and finally, that worked.”
The relative told Smith that Newell had recently been released from a Michigan prison.
“Him, knowing that he had the warrants,” Smith said, “I don’t know what was in his mind. Did he think we were going to go away? Who knows what he was thinking. To this day, he hasn’t told us what he was thinking, but he wasn’t coming out.”
