- November 28, 2024
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A 24-year-old man pointed a gun at his Lyft driver's head the morning of Aug. 6 and pulled the trigger: The gun clicked, but did not fire, according to the Sheriff's Office.
The man later said he was suicidal and was trying to scare the driver into shooting him.
Deputies arrested suspect Esaiah Glenn, a Palm Coast resident, the same day.
The Lyft driver said he had picked up Glenn on Providence Lane at about 2:13 a.m., according to Glenn's arrest report. The Lyft had been ordered under someone else's name.
Glenn asked the driver to take him to an address on Bronson Lane.
But from the beginning, the driver later told a deputy, Glenn had seemed "very off," continuously "making extravagant statements about random things," according to the deputy's account of the driver's statement.
Glenn repeatedly changed his mind about where he wanted the driver to go.
At one point, after Glenn told the driver to turn around, the driver felt something hard against the back of his head and heard a click.
The driver spun around and grabbed the gun out of Glenn's hands.
Glenn "began making jokes, stating the firearm is not loaded and he was 'just kidding.'" But soon after, he "completely changed his demeanor," saying he wanted to die and asking the driver to shoot him.
The driver told Glenn to get out of the car. Glenn repeatedly asked the driver to shoot him while slowly getting out of the car. As soon as Glenn was out, the driver tossed the handgun out the window, sped off and called the Flagler County Sheriff's Office.
Deputies checked homes near the address where Glenn had been picked up on Providence Lane, and found the person who had ordered the Lyft for him.
That person, who said Glenn was his friend, told deputies that Glenn had been making suicidal statements and had shown him a gun. Deputies found Glenn trying to get a hotel room on Kingswood Drive, according to an FCSO press release.
He admitted that he'd pulled a gun on the driver and said he did so because he had hoped that the driver would shoot him if he heard the gun click.
The driver identified Glenn as the person who'd pulled the gun on him.
"This situation could have ended a lot worse, but I’m proud of the quick and sweeping actions our team to make sure our community was safe, and that the suspect was apprehended before he could hurt someone or himself," Sheriff Rick Staly said, according to the news release. "If you know of someone who is having a mental health episode, you should always call us to intervene before it escalates, as it did in this case.”
Deputies arrested Glenn and took him to the county jail. He is charged with Aggravated Assault with a Firearm.
