A man is dead after deputies say they found him naked and covered in blood while trying to avoid being captured.
The Hardee County Sheriff's Office says Tommy Redding was driving a stolen Jeep erratically near Hardee Senior High School and refused to stop for a deputy before crashing on the curve -- just south of campus -- on Altman Road in Wauchula.
When he crashed, investigators say he hopped out and ran off. Authorities put the school on lockdown as they searched for him.
Drones and a K-9 were dispatched to the scene. As they were searching, a woman nearby told authorities she thought someone was hiding inside a barn on her property. Deputies showed up and ordered Redding to come out with his hands up.
The sheriff's office says he kicked open the door to reveal himself bloody and nude. He also seemed to be under the influence of some unknown substance, deputies said.
As a deputy tried to arrest him, authorities say the bloody and sweaty Redding was able to slip out of the deputy's grasp and run down the driveway.
"As he ran by the gate opener, he tore off the metal box cover over the automatic gate opener and began swinging it around trying to keep deputies away," Sheriff's Office Captain Eddie Davis wrote explained in an email. "He then threw down the metal box and began ripping the electrical wires out of it."
Another deputy then pulled into the driveway for backup. That deputy deployed a Taser, but authorities say it didn't stop Redding -- who was able to run past the deputy and enter the deputy's cruiser. According to law enforcement, he was then able put the cruiser into gear and back out of the driveway -- onto the road.
"As he was backing out, two patrol units barricaded him from backing any farther and another deputy positioned his patrol car in front of the vehicle in order to block him," Davis explained. "Still trying to elude arrest, Redding rammed the vehicle into the patrol car parked in front of him while a deputy was inside, deploying the airbags in both vehicles."
Deputies say they were finally able to get Redding out of the sheriff's office car, but he allegedly kept resisting arrest -- leading them to deploy Taser devices. They say they managed to restrain him, but he became unresponsive.
EMS workers began trying to revive Redding and took him to Advent Health Wauchula, but he was pronounced dead. Authorities say he was identified by a comparison of tattoos to the ones on file from a previous stint in the Hardee County Jail.
Investigators say Redding had a motorcycle that appears to have crashed near the home where the original Jeep was stolen from. They found clothes in an orange grove near the school and in the barn where they say he was found hiding.
One deputy was taken to the hospital for injuries. Authorities say five deputies were exposed to blood born pathogens.
"I'm very proud of the law enforcement officers who helped secure this situation and for the deputy who placed himself in harm's way to stop this individual," Sheriff Arnold Lanier wrote in a statement. "We had to ensure we did everything we could to keep our students and community safe."
Autopsy results are pending.
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