DAVENPORT, Fla. — A physical education teacher in Polk County has been arrested after the sheriff's office said he pulled out a gun and threatened a security officer.
Devonta Gilmore, 31, is a teacher at Union Academy Magnet School in Bartow, the Polk County Sheriff's Office said in a news release. He's charged with aggravated assault on a security officer.
"We expect better from those entrusted with teaching our children," Sheriff Grady Judd said in a statement. "Because this teacher lost his cool and threatened a uniformed security officer, he has compromised his integrity and embarrassed his coworkers."
At around 3 a.m. on Sunday, Jan. 22, deputies responded to the front entrance security booth of Champions Gate on U.S. Highway 27 in Davenport on a report of aggravated assault. An affidavit says Gilmore tried to enter the gated community to "pick up his girlfriend's belongings," the sheriff's office reports. However, the security officers did not let him through, noting he was not on the approved visitor list.
The 31-year-old then drove to a second entrance location where he was denied access again.
At this point, the sheriff's office said Gilmore became aggravated and asked the security officer, "You want this smoke? You want this smoke? You wanna bump?" Gilmore then pulled a handgun from his waistband, showed it to the security officer and placed it in his lap, according to authorities. And then he fled the area.
While Polk County deputies were investigating at the security booth, Gilmore returned to the area in the black Audi sedan and turned into the subdivision, the sheriff's office said. Upon seeing law enforcement, he turned around and fled north on Highway 27.
Deputies searched the area and found Gilmore hiding inside the car in a Publix parking lot less than one mile away from the community subdivision. He was then taken into custody and arrested.
Gilmore reportedly told deputies that he pleaded with the security officer to let him in the gated community and "felt disrespected" when he was denied access. He then admitted to showing his gun and saying, "What, you want to bump?" Gilmore said that "bump" meant physically fighting.