- April 19, 2024
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A 41-year-old Palm Coast man threatened his wife and his 22-year-old son with a handgun the night of May 9, then hid out in the woods in Palm Coast's E-Section while deputies searched for him, according to the FCSO.
The wife and son said that Larry Batson Jr., the suspect, had returned to their home in the E-Section that day and told his wife that he'd gotten his car stuck in the mud in Espanola.
Batson and the wife began to argue, and he asked her to drive him to his sister's house to spend the night, according to an FCSO arrest report. But once they were on their way, Batson told her to turn around because he wanted to go back and pick up his dog.
She refused, and he then pulled out a black Sig Sauer handgun and pointed it at her and his son in the car, saying, "Do you wanna die?" according to the victims' accounts.
The son, who had a concealed weapons permit, later told deputies that "he was scared and thought he was going to have to shoot his father, because he thought Larry was going to shoot them," according to the report.
But the wife slammed on the brakes, and Batson dropped the gun. The wife picked it up and threw it out the window, and Batson jumped out of the car. The wife looked back and saw him pick it up.
Deputies with K-9s arrived in the area, as did the Volusia County Sheriff's Office's Air One helicopter.
An E-Section resident called in after seeing someone run through their yard, and Air One found Batson nearby, crouched in the woods off Emerson Drive. Deputies with K-9s ordered him out of the woods, telling him he'd be bitten if he didn't show himself. They took him into custody.
A deputy found the loaded Sig Sauer under a log on Eagle Place.
Batson denied brandishing the gun in the car, and said he'd jumped out of the car to get his dog. He said he knew police were looking for him, but that he didn't turn himself in because he didn't trust police.
“Not only did he threaten his family with a firearm, but he then ran and hid in the woods, causing numerous deputies with the assistance of Volusia County Sheriff’s helicopter to respond to locate him,” Sheriff Rick Staly said in an FCSO news release. “Thankfully someone called to let us know that someone was running through their backyard at 10:30 at night, and he was taken into custody without anyone getting hurt. This is why we are constantly asking people to ‘see something, say something,’ as it just may help solve a case like it did this time.”
Deputies arrested Batson and entered charges for aggravated assault with deadly weapon domestic violence, possession of a concealed firearm and resisting arrest.
He is being held at the county jail on a $15,000 bond.
