A man from Florida who had recently been released from jail found himself back behind bars after he was caught on gas station surveillance video allegedly stealing a car from a woman who was pumping gas into her vehicle.
Andrew McClellan, 31, was taken into custody on multiple charges, including grand theft auto and assaulting a law enforcement officer. These charges stemmed from an incident in Orange County where McClellan purportedly carjacked an SUV from a woman filling up at a Mobil station in Apopka.
Video footage of the incident depicted a man, identified as McClellan, pulling up next to the woman's SUV in a stolen Toyota. Within seconds, he jumped into the driver's seat of her vehicle. By the time the woman realized what was happening, he was already inside the car, attempting to drive away. There seemed to be a brief struggle before he fled the scene with the gas pump still in the car, and the woman tried to stop him, which resulted in her being dragged a short distance.
An eyewitness, Morning Leveille, who was stopped at a traffic light across the street, told FOX 35 Orlando that she believed the woman was targeted because she was alone. Leveille recounted, "She was like, 'Get out of my car!' And he said, 'No.' And then they threw a couple of punches, and he drove off, which eventually flung her out of the side of the car door." She also mentioned that she and a store clerk attended to the victim's injured arm while waiting for the police.
McClellan was apprehended by Daytona Beach police a few hours later when they spotted the stolen vehicle. According to an arrest affidavit obtained by FOX 35, McClellan initially resisted arrest. Once detained and inside a patrol vehicle, he allegedly manipulated his handcuffs to the front of his body, then assaulted officers when they opened the car door, causing one officer to lose balance.
In order to gain compliance, officers reportedly struck McClellan three times and used a "hobble" to secure his ankles before transferring him to a prisoner transport vehicle. While inside that vehicle, he allegedly attempted to tighten the "hobble" around his neck. An officer intervened to remove the device, and McClellan, who remained conscious, was taken to the hospital.
Notably, McClellan had not even spent a full week out of jail at the time of the carjacking. He had been released on September 29 after being arrested by Orange County deputies at the end of August in connection with the burglary of two separate businesses on Orange Blossom Trail.
The charges against him, which included burglary of a structure, petty theft, and criminal mischief, were dropped when the Orange-Osceola State Attorney's office determined they were "not suitable for prosecution," as indicated in court documents. McClellan was released from jail on his own recognizance after the State Attorney's office failed to file formal charges in the second case within the required 33-day period.
FOX 35 reported that they reached out to State Attorney Andrew Bain's office for a statement regarding the dropped case and the delayed proceedings leading to McClellan's release but had not received a response at the time of publication.
In another news, a man who brutally attacked and killed a Virginia mother, then set her apartment on fire, believed she was his ex-girlfriend who had broken up with him a month earlier, according to prosecutors. See detailed story here.
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