A Florida motorcyclist rammed into a Marion County Sheriff’s Office deputy last week, after fleeing him for not having a rear license plate, video shows.
Video posted on the sheriff’s office Facebook page shows K-9 corporal Calvin Batts attempt to stop Matthew Price, 32, who was weaving in and out of traffic on a motorcycle before sewing his way through stopped vehicles at the intersection of Southwest College Road and Southwest 17th Street.
Batts drove the police vehicle into the incoming traffic lanes to head off Price, positioning the vehicle in front of Price’s path.
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Batts then got out and walked around his vehicle before getting rammed by Price’s motorcycle.
The deputy grabbed Price, pulled him from the motorcycle and took him to the ground before placing handcuffs on both wrists without much resistance.
After he was handcuffed, Price told the deputy he tried to avoid the traffic stop because he removed the license plate from the motorcycle to avoid paying tolls while on his way to Lakeland, Florida.
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"Sorry about that, man," Price is heard telling the deputy on video. "I didn't have my plate on, and I freaked out."
Price was ultimately arrested and charged with fleeing to elude a law enforcement officer. He was then taken to the Marion County Jail.
"Citizens, it’s a bad idea to flee from law enforcement," the Marion County Sheriff’s Office Facebook post read. "It puts a lot of people at risk of being hurt or killed. And it makes a bad situation much, much worse."
According to police, had Price stopped for the deputy, he would have been cited with a nonmoving violation and required to pay $116.
Now, because he fled, Price faces a third-degree felony charge. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison, a $5,000 fine, a mandatory driver’s license suspension of one to five years and a mandatory adjudication of guilt, making him a convicted felon.