High Springs man on probation arrested for fleeing at high speed, accelerating toward patrol cars

Staff report

HIGH SPRINGS, Fla. – Howard Carl McLees, 62, was arrested yesterday after fleeing from officers at high speed and accelerating toward multiple patrol vehicles, forcing officers to take evasive action to avoid being hit by his truck.

At about 4:56 p.m. yesterday, a High Springs Police Department officer responded to a call for a well-being check on a man who was slumped over inside a pickup truck. The officer tried to make contact with the man, later identified as McLees, but instead of responding, McLees reportedly started the truck. The officer reportedly told him multiple times that he could not leave, but McLees allegedly accelerated away at a high rate of speed and turned west from SE Douglass Street onto NW 180th Avenue, a dead-end road.

The officer followed McLees in his patrol vehicle, and when McLees realized it was a dead-end street, he allegedly turned his truck around and accelerated at high speed toward the officer’s patrol vehicle and a second patrol vehicle that had arrived.

The first officer activated his emergency lights to signal McLees to stop, but McLees allegedly drove toward the patrol vehicles, forcing one of the officers to get out of his way to avoid a collision. McLees allegedly ran the stop sign, turned north on Douglass Street, and encountered a third patrol vehicle.

The third officer reportedly had to get out of McLees’ path to avoid a collision, and all three patrol vehicles pursued McLees’ truck, with lights and sirens activated.

McLees allegedly ran multiple stop signs while driving west on NW 184th Road and crossed High Springs Main Street at a time of day when there is heavy traffic. His truck reportedly broke down as he was turning north on NW 237th Street, and the officers ordered him out of the truck.

McLees allegedly refused to get out of the truck and had to be forcefully removed.

McLees has been charged with aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, fleeing or attempting to elude a law enforcement officer, and resisting an officer without violence. He has 16 felony convictions (three violent) and nine misdemeanor convictions (one violent) and has served three state prison sentences, with his most recent release in 2020.

In March, Judge James Colaw sentenced him to five years in prison for stealing $500 in steaks from Hitchcock’s, with the condition that the sentence would be suspended if he successfully completed five years of probation. An affidavit of violation of probation was filed in June after McLees reportedly failed a urine test and was found to have cocaine in his system, but a warrant had not yet been issued.

Judge Kristine Van Vorst did not set bail this morning because McLees was hospitalized.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.