Brandon Marti
According to KPD, authorities began tracking down Brandon Martí after he allegedly crashed his car into a parked car in a Forrest Avenue neighborhood. From there, police said he broke into a nearby home and stole a car which he later crashed into a fence at Kissimmee Gateway Airport.
Before allegedly stealing a pick-up truck at the airport Martí told its driver, “The Mexicans are coming after me!”
The driver tried fighting back, but was dragged as Martí drove the truck to a helicopter stationed there, tinkering with the ignition and a panel of buttons and switches before giving up and driving away while arguing with airport security, according to a report released Wednesday.
Martí was later stunned and arrested by Osceola County deputy sheriffs six miles away from the airport, just outside the Partin Village shopping plaza parking lot, while trying to steal another vehicle, a snippet of aerial video released by the Sheriff’s Office showed.
Martí, 31, is currently in the Osceola County Jail on a $57,500 bond for carjacking, burglary, grand theft, criminal mischief and a litany of traffic violations.
It’s not clear whether he received a mental health evaluation after his arrest. The man who tried to stop Martí was taken to a nearby hospital for his injuries and no other injuries were documented, according to the report.
He’s expected to appear in court Thursday, court records show.
In 2008, Martí signed to play college football for the Hurricanes as a linebacker, but his time there was marred after not playing his debut season and was later suspended by the team before being arrested for domestic violence charges, the Miami Herald reported at the time.
Martí was arrested a few times in the following years for drug charges, including a three-year prison stint stemming from a 2015 case where he was charged with trafficking amphetamines and cocaine possession, among other counts, according to Florida Department of Corrections records.
Records show the investigation began with a hit-and-run crash near the intersection of Oak Street and Forrest Avenue shortly before 8 a.m. Tuesday.
Police said a man involved in that crash, 31-year-old Brandon Marti, then broke into an occupied home off Forrest Avenue, took a pair of car keys and drove off in a silver Nissan Altima parked in the driveway.
Marti — a former football player for the University of Miami, records show — then drove that stolen car to Kissimmee Gateway Airport, where he rammed it into a gate, leaving the car inoperable, according to the affidavit.
Police said he then ran to a Ford F-150 and got into an altercation with the truck’s owner as that man tried to prevent Marti from stealing the truck but he was unsuccessful and instead ended up being dragged by the truck.
Marti then drove the truck to a helicopter, got inside, turned the keys in the ignition and pressed buttons in an attempt to start the rotorcraft, according to the report.
Security guards confronted him and after a verbal altercation, Marti drove off in the stolen Ford, authorities said.
Osceola County deputies said they managed to blow out the truck’s tires after a short pursuit.
The truck stopped at the entrance to Partin Village Shopping Plaza and Marti then attempted to carjack another driver, according to the release. Deputies zapped Marti with a Taser and then handcuffed him, the sheriff’s office said.
Kissimmee police said Marti is facing charges of carjacking, burglary, grand theft and criminal mischief in their jurisdiction. Deputies said Marti has been charged with aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, attempted carjacking, fleeing and eluding and resisting arrest.
Brandon Marti
Marti was relegated to the practice squad as a freshman in the 2008 season and eventually booted off the team altogether after failing to get a respectable hairdo despite repeated warnings from Coach Shannon.
On a personal note, as a fellow white guy who also spent the majority of my freshman year in and out of the clink, with a really bad hairdo, here's to hoping that Marti uses his time at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center to find Jesus. Or a barber. Preferably a barber.
God Speed, Brandon.
We used to read about people on bath salts doing crazy stuff like that.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if it’s CTE from his football career ? I know he hasn’t played in awhile but maybe it takes awhile for stuff like that to develop. Or maybe he’s just Coo Coo for Cocoa Puffs.
ReplyDeletedrugs are bad m'kay
ReplyDeleteYep.... Just a guess.....open the border and let who knows what type drugs come unto the streets and it filters down and into people's lives and this is what we get.... It will get worse......Thanks Biden
ReplyDeleteGlad he knew nothing about operating a helicopter or the chase would REALLY have become noteworthy.
ReplyDeleteHalf of me wanted to see him actually take the helicopter out in the air pursuit, but my other half says oh no, GA airports will add security measures that will further inconvenience us.
DeleteWonder if he ever thinks “wow if I didn’t behave like an animal I could have been a professional linebacker”
DeleteHope he does now!
Even if he could have started it up, he'd have never gotten it off the ground. Not knowing how to balance collective with rudder and stick he would have torque spun around on the ground and tilted sideways thrashing the blades. I actually wish that would have happened to this deadbeat trailer trash.
DeleteWonder what his major was supposed to be
ReplyDeleteInternational Cisgender Studies....
DeleteYou really have to be a total f**k-up to get kicked off the Miami football team.
ReplyDelete