LAKELAND, Fla. — An arrest of a man in Polk County in connection to domestic violence ended with him later dying at a hospital in Lakeland, according to the Polk County Sheriff's Office.
During a news conference on Tuesday, Sheriff Grady Judd explained how 58-year-old Maximino Lopez-Gonzalez was taken into custody early Monday morning.
Deputies were called out to a neighborhood off of Old Tampa Highway and CR 542 in Lakeland to reports of a family disturbance. When they arrived, they found a bedridden woman, who Judd says is the victim of the situation.
Lopez-Gonzalez, who was reportedly in the U.S. illegally after overstaying a work visa, is a relative of the 65-year-old woman. And instead of taking care of her, Judd explains he threw a chemical cleaning agent on her and threatened to kill her.
Emergency services were called to the house, and the 58-year-old man was arrested for felony battery once deputies arrived.
According to Judd, deputies also found that Lopez-Gonzalez had methamphetamine in his possession during the investigation – finding a meth pipe on him. And it wasn't until law enforcement told him he's under arrest that things changed.
The 58-year-old started to fight with the deputies as they handcuffed him, ultimately resisting getting in the car. And the sheriff said even once he was inside the car and they were on their way to the county jail, Lopez-Gonzalez somehow got his right hand free.
This was when he reportedly started to beat on the inside of the patrol car along with beating his head against the glass.
Eventually, the deputies pulled over to the side of the road and tried to get the man out of the car. Judd says Lopez-Gonzalez, who punched a deputy in the face and bit another's finger during the altercation, was seen to be sweating profusely during all of this.
Even after a deputy cut the man's seatbelt loose and got him out of the car, he continued to fight.
According to Judd, EMS arrived on scene to take Lopez-Gonzalez to the hospital after they started to believe he was suffering from excited delirium — a sudden onset of aggressive behavior, according to the National Institutes of Health. But while en route to the hospital, EMS called and said he became unresponsive.
Once they got to the hospital, they continued to perform life-saving efforts until he was pronounced dead at 10:58 p.m.
“Of course, there are many exit ramps here where none of this had to occur,” Judd said. “Starting with the fact that he didn’t have to throw chemical cleaning agent on his relative who was bedridden…”
The sheriff said there was no evidence showing that the man's resisting led to his death.
Judd also touched on two other cases during the news conference including an ambush murder that happened back in March and a DUI manslaughter case from Saturday in Haines City.
Watch the full news conference down below.