Lake deputies arrest armed felon; clown mask found, too
The most frightening part of Lloyd Carter’s arrest may not be the clown mask a Lake County Sheriff’s deputy found in the front seat of his car.
Carter, a convicted felon, wielded a Mossberg .22 caliber assault rifle — serial number scratched off — as he wrestled with a deputy and his K-9 on Sunday. As the deputy reached for his pistol, the 26-year-old Mount Dora man flung his weapon to the ground, according to a sheriff ’s report. The incident started after Carter nearly rolled through a stop sign at the intersection of Susan and Pamela streets, crossed into the opposite lane and wouldn’t pull over for the deputy behind him, his arrest affidavit said. Police say he preceded to crash into a chain link fence and took off from his car on foot.
Carter’s arrest marked the second time law enforcement in Lake County dealt with a clown mask this Halloween season. As so-called creepy clown sightings are popping up across the country, Sheriff ’s Sgt. Fred Jones said he did not know why Carter had the mask.
“In my opinion, we may have stopped a possible robbery from happening when you look at the totality of the circumstances with the gun,” Jones said in an email Wednesday.
Carter faces charges of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession of a firearm with an altered serial number, fleeing and eluding and driving without a license for the third time. Carter remained in the Lake County Jail on Wednesday afternoon with a $42,000 bond, records show.
Earlier this month, deputies arrested three Tavares Middle School students who allegedly wore “scary” clown masks at a bus stop near a Leesburg elementary school. A sheriff’s spokesman said the students were trying to download an app that makes gun sounds to go along with the mask.