OCEAN CITY — A Virginia man faces numerous charges this week after a bizarre incident involving jumping off a second-floor hotel balcony onto the dune, fleeing from police and ultimately having to be hit with a Taser.
Around 8 p.m. last Saturday, an Ocean City Police Department (OCPD) officer was dispatched to a hotel at 91st Street to assist Ocean City EMS with an individual suffering from an alcohol overdose. When OCPD officers arrived and entered the hotel room, they observed a female on the floor vomiting in a waste basket, according to police reports.
Abner Velasquez-Sanchez, 24, of Woodbridge, Va., was also in the room. When officers asked Velasquez-Sanchez where the female’s identification was, he became visibly nervous and began pacing in the room with his breathing accelerated, according to police reports.
Velasquez-Sanchez reportedly asked the officer to come out on the hotel balcony and speak with him, but the officer said no. In the meantime, a hotel staffer located the female’s wallet in a purse and OCPD officers found her identification inside. The officer attempted to verify the female’s identification and placed the wallet on the bed.
Abner Velasquez-Sanchez
At that point, for reasons unknown, Velasquez-Sanchez picked up the wallet, walked out on the second-floor balcony and jumped off, according to police reports. OCPD officers went to the balcony and observed Velasquez-Sanchez running south through the sand dunes behind the hotel.
OCPD officers began to canvas the area for the suspect. A short time later, OCPD officers were dispatched to a wine and beer store at 85th Street for a report of a male matching Velasquez-Sanchez’s description attempting to enter the back seat of a vehicle parked in the store’s parking lot.
The occupants reportedly told Velasquez-Sanchez to get out of the vehicle and he complied, disappearing again. OCPD officers observed Velasquez-Sanchez running north on the sidewalk on Coastal Highway.
The OCPD officers began searching for Velasquez-Sanchez again. Another OCPD officer reported observing Velasquez-Sanchez in the area of 90th Street and Coastal Highway. The initial officer responded to the area and observed the suspect stumbled off the sidewalk and into the bus lane. As the officer approached the suspect, he reportedly jumped out into the bus lane in front of the officer’s patrol car, causing him to brake rapidly to avoid hitting him.
The OCPD officer got out of his patrol vehicle and approached Velasquez-Sanchez on foot, but the suspect did not adhere to the officer’s commands to stop and walked backward on the sidewalk, according to police reports. When the officer attempted to get the suspect to sit down, he reportedly resisted again, striking and pushing the officer.
OCPD officers wrestled with Velasquez-Sanchez in an attempt to take him into custody, but he would not allow officers to handcuff him. At one point, OCPD officers had to drive him down to the ground, but he continued to resist. According to police reports, a blow to the back of the head briefly stunned Velasquez-Sanchez and allowed police to handcuff one wrist.
After more resistance, an officer held his Taser about a foot away from the suspect, aimed and deployed it. Velasquez-Sanchez immediately allowed officers to completely handcuff him. He was charged with assault, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and intoxicated endangerment.
