Joseph Leedy, seen in two inset images, amid the destruction caused by the car he allegedly drove through the lobby of a jail in Martin County, Fla. (Martin County Sheriff’s Office)
A Florida man, said to be homeless, intentionally rammed his car into the side of a county jail on Monday night, law enforcement officials in the Sunshine State say. The damage, seen in photos, was severe, but the scene that played out after the impact became increasingly bizarre.
Joseph Leedy, 40, stands accused of four counts of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer and one count of criminal mischief resulting in damage of $1,000 or greater, according to a press release issued by the Martin County Sheriff’s Office.
The sheriff’s office told Law&Crime that Leedy is also charged with one count of resisting arrest without violence.
The defendant is currently back in the same jail he allegedly attacked — where he is currently being held without bond.
Deputies initially took stock of the ordeal by posting a tongue-in-cheek press release on Facebook that matter-of-factly relayed the order of events.
“The suspect drove from the parking lot, up the walkway then crashed through the glass lobby doors,” the sheriff’s office wrote in the post following the crash. “He was not able to breach the inner steel security doors. No one was in the lobby at the time of the crash. The driver is in custody. #WrongEntrance.”
The sheriff’s office elaborated on the circumstances of the door-busting kerfuffle in an update posted on Tuesday afternoon.
Leedy originally hails from Illinois but currently lives in Key Largo, according to law enforcement. The sheriff’s office identified the defendant as a “homeless man” who said he “came here to kill police” and who also “expressed a desire” to “kill everyone.”
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The seriousness of such allegedly homicidal entreaties, or, perhaps, the likelihood of any alleged threats bearing fruit, however, is a bit unclear.
Once Leedy crashed through the two front doors of the jail, he got out of his vehicle “wearing a ladies blouse and no pants” and proceeded to pour motor oil on the lobby floor “saying he wanted to set it on fire,” according to sheriff’s deputies, and “continued making homicidal statements about police officers.”
The next part was strangely serpentine.
While expressing the killing urge, Leedy allegedly “threw rubber snakes on the floor and fought with deputies and fire rescue personnel.”
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The sheriff’s office claims the defendant “made it into the lobby area causing thousands of dollars in damage” but no injuries were reported.
“Leedy was restrained and taken to the hospital where he continued to be uncooperative with personnel until he was taken back to the jail, booked in and charged,” the second press release says.
The sheriff’s office confirmed to Law&Crime that a case against the defendant had been filed but the incident report in the case was not yet complete. The Martin County court system has yet to make Leedy’s case available on the public docket as of this writing.
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