Man suspected of running down deaf student is arrested at Deerfield hotel

From: Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel, FL - Jul 22, 2004

By Jaime Hernandez
Staff Writer

More than a month after he failed to report to a court hearing, a man suspected of running down a deaf high school student in 2001 was arrested Tuesday night at a Deerfield Beach hotel, police said Wednesday.

Fort Lauderdale police detectives, with the help of U.S. marshals and Broward Sheriff's Office deputies, found Antwaun Snell, 26, at the Wellesley Inn at 110 SW 12th Ave., police said. He is being held at the Main Jail without bail.

Fort Lauderdale police Detectives Chuck Morrow and John Curry received a tip Tuesday night that Snell was staying at the hotel, Morrow said. Accompanied by several marshals, the detectives went to the hotel just before 7 p.m. and had deputies surround the complex.

Authorities searched each room for Snell. When they reached his the third-floor room and announced themselves, he jumped from a rear window onto the pool deck, Morrow said. Snell fought with several officers before they took him into custody, Morrow said.

Snell was charged with several offenses, including resisting arrest with violence and battery on a law enforcement officer. He had multiple outstanding arrest warrants, including cocaine trafficking, aggravated fleeing and eluding police, and two counts of leaving the scene of a crash with serious bodily injuries.

Snell left a June 16 court hearing at the Broward County Courthouse free on bond, Morrow said. He was supposed to return to the hearing but did not. Since then, police think believe Snell had been hiding in hotels from Miami-Dade to Palm Beach counties.

Snell is accused of driving into Glenice Petit-Dos, a deaf South Plantation High student, as she stepped off a school bus on Aug. 29, 2001. Police say Snell was fleeing detectives in a pickup after a drug sting when he struck the girl. He eventually turned himself in to police. Petit-Dos recovered from serious injuries to her face and ankle.

Morrow said authorities were determined not to let Snell get access to a vehicle Tuesday.

"Knowing his history of fleeing police, we had no doubt that if he made it to a vehicle that he would flee," Morrow said.

Jaime Hernandez can be reached at jahernandez@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4631.

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