PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. — Deputies in the Panhandle arrested a man on Panama City Beach who refused to get out of the water during dangerous swimming conditions, the Bay County Sheriff's Office said in a Facebook post.
Garrison Creamer, 38, was arrested and is facing multiple charges including violation of the double red flag ordinance.
Double red flags flew Tuesday, June 20, which means the water was closed to the public. However, that didn't stop a man, later identified as Creamer, from swimming in the water with a boogie board, the sheriff's office explained.
Deputies used their public address systems to alert the man to the danger he potentially faced by being in the water, but Creamer refused to leave the Gulf, they said. The agency's Air Unit also flew above head to alert the man, but he remained in the water.
After 25 minutes or so passed, Creamer returned to the shoreline with his boogie board and tried to avoid deputies by running through a large crowd that gathered on the sand to watch. A video posted on the sheriff's office's Facebook showed the man sprinting across the beach.
Following a short chase, deputies were able to catch up to him and take him into custody near the sand dunes.
Creamer was also charged with obstruction of justice and resisting and battery on a law enforcement officer. He was later booked into the Bay County Jail.
"As Double Red Flags were posted, swimming conditions in the water were too dangerous for anyone, even with a boogie board," the sheriff's office said in the post. "Only those tethered to a surfboard can enter the water during Double Red Flags."