Suspect captured after high-speed pursuit through Flagler neighborhood

A 20-year-old Palm Coast man was handcuffed in the woods on Monday, accused of leading Flagler County deputies on a high-speed pursuit through residential and transit streets, according to the sheriff’s office.

Deputies were called around 2 p.m. to investigate a domestic disturbance reported on Ballenger Lane, the sheriff’s office said in a news release. The caller had said that King was causing a disturbance at their home and was refusing to leave, the release states.

King reportedly got into a car and left while the sheriff’s office was on its way, but a deputy saw him at the intersection of Pine Lakes Parkway S and Belle Terre Parkway, according to the release. The deputy, without their emergency lights activated, followed King’s Ford Fusion until it accelerated onto Bayside Drive, reaching speeds of up to 80 mph in a residential neighborhood, the release states.

The sheriff’s office accuses King of speeding erratically through the area, weaving in and out of lanes and even off the roadway without regard to public safety. Now at northbound Belle Terre Parkway, having damaged his right passenger-side bumper, he swerved in and out of traffic and pushed other vehicles off of the road, deputies said.

A deputy deployed stop sticks near Belle Terre Parkway and Buffalo Bill Drive, managing to deflate King’s two rear tires, according to the sheriff’s office. King drove on, fleeing north across Matanzas Woods Parkway onto Lakeview Boulevard until reaching a dead end where he turned onto a dirt trail, struck a large sand berm in a heavily-wooded area and jumped out.

He was chased around 75 feet into the woods, deputies said, before being taken into custody.

King faces charges of resisting an officer without violence, reckless driving, violation of probation and three counts of fleeing with disregard of safety to persons or property, records show. He’s being held on no bond.