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Published on Thursday, January 29, 2004
in the Palm Beach Post
Police say Robert Jackson Jr. punched a Florida Highway Patrol trooper Tuesday night on PGA Boulevard in Palm Beach Gardens and fled into the PGA National community to escape, only to find a.357-caliber Magnum-packing woman security guard whose Donald Duck T-shirt he'd stolen earlier.
Jackson, 39, who listed addresses in Fort Pierce, Miami and Kissimmee, had been stopped by trooper Sandy Young for suspicion of DUI and fleeing the scene of a crash. As Jackson scrambled up a canal bank in the affluent neighborhood, Wackenhut Corp. protection officer Barbara Bates of Port St. Lucie drew a bead on him and held him until state troopers and Palm Beach Gardens police arrived.
The euphoria of the capture was short-lived, though, said her husband, St. Lucie County sheriff's deputy Cameron Bates.
"It went from high-fiving to oh no," Cameron Bates said Wednesday.
Barbara Bates, a former reserve officer with the Pahokee police department, thought the Walt Disney World Donald Duck T-shirt Jackson was wearing looked familiar.
It turned out to be. Earlier, police said Jackson ripped up the dashboard of Bates' 2000 Dodge Grand Caravan but failed to hot-wire it for an escape before getting away with her T-shirt and a pair of tennis shoes.
Jackson, who was pepper-sprayed by Young before breaking free during the 6:02 p.m. arrest, at one point tried to steal Young's cruiser but was foiled by an anti-theft control device, FHP Lt. Pat Santangelo said.
He was being held in the Palm Beach County Jail Wednesday night on $9,000 bail on charges of battery on a police officer, DUI, resisting arrest with violence, leaving the scene of an accident, auto burglary and attempted auto grand theft.