A woman was arrested Thursday after allegedly striking an Ocala police officer who was trying to break up an altercation outside a Publix grocery store.
The officer was responding to the Publix store, located at 5400 SW College Rd., on Thursday night to investigate a call for a suspicious incident. A short time later, he saw a man and a woman later identified as 35-year-old Jennifer Sumberlin lying in the grass nearby just off SW 60th Street.
The officer made contact with a crew from Marion County Fire Rescue who was with Sumberlin. The officer said both Sumberlin and the man smelled like alcohol and appeared to be intoxicated, with “slurred speech, bloodshot eyes” and “trouble standing as they repeatedly kept stumbling around,” the report says, adding that both admitted they that had been drinking.
Another officer arrived and started speaking with Sumberlin, who became visibly agitated. The man grabbed her arm and she began to yell at him and raise her arm like she planned to strike him, the report says.
The first officer stepped between the two in attempt to separate them and allegedly was struck on the right shoulder by Sumberlin. He then told her she was being arrested for hitting him, to which she replied she was “sorry,” the report says.
Sumberlin was transported to the Marion County Jail and charged with battery on a law enforcement officer. She was being held on held on $5,000 bond and is due in court on May 21 at 9 a.m. to answer to the charge.
The man was transported by ambulance to West Marion Community Hospital and apparently placed under some kind of hold, the details of which were redacted from the report.