Around 6:30 p.m. that day, a man exited his car, took off his clothes, and began walking north against traffic. Before long, Florida Highway Patrol arrived.
A video shows State Trooper Ronald Melendez-Bonilla peacefully detaining the disturbed man, whose name New Times is withholding. In the incident report, the trooper wrote the man had a "lost and confused look on his face."Currently in Miami ... on I-95 pic.twitter.com/xrpRXvWp7f
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"As I was approaching the individual, I observed he was scared and unaware of his safety and the safety of others," Melendez-Bonilla wrote. He persuaded the man to put his hands up, drop the lighter he was holding in his clenched fist, and get on the ground, at which point the man "stated he needed help and was not a threat."
Melendez-Bonilla told the man he was detaining him for his own safety and then got him into an ambulance for an evaluation. He was later transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital.Well here’s the frontal view.... #Miamiatitsbest pic.twitter.com/jnQggavfXa
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While at the hospital, the man said he had been set up and that he was "in his car and felt something on his lap that was choking him and something possessed his body; therefore he exited his vehicle and started to take his clothes off."
The man said the other person in the vehicle was "some guy that he met at the hotel he was staying at" and that they were on their way to a casino. He also said he had "smoked crack cocaine and
The man, who lives in Broward County, has a long history of drug possession charges, including previous arrests for
He was involuntarily taken into custody for psychiatric observation — "Baker Acted" — because "at the time of the incident," Melendez-Bonilla wrote, "without care or treatment, he would cause serious bodily harm to himself or to others."
Police couldn't immediately say whether he was still in custody Friday.
It wouldn't be the first time someone stripped naked after taking