CAPE CORAL, Fla. — A Youtuber with a reputation for confrontation with police around the nation in Cape Coral is now facing a criminal charge.
According to the police report, Floyd Wallace was holding what they called was a black rifle case around a Cape Coral fire station. Wallace is known for clashing with law enforcement around the county and recording his encounters with officers.
In this incident, a Cape Coral firefighter called the police about male hiding behind trees with the black case. One witness states he feared for his life. Another said he feared for the safety of his crew of firefighters.
Wallace said the incident stemmed from him exercising his First Amendment rights and refusing to provide his I.D. to police.
The police had came out aggressively from the jump," he said. “I know in my mind I didn’t commit no crimes that day. I complied once the officer said I was detained."
Fox 4 reached out to a former law enforcement officer not associated with the case to get a deeper perspective. Walt Zalisko looked at the video and said police had cause for concern.
“I mean, we have too many shootings in public, you know, and they have every right to stop this individual. They have every right to search that rifle case, to see if there's a weapon there and to question that individual," he said.
Wallace told Fox 4 the rifle case was a tripod case for his camera equipment. Fox 4 searched for the logo seen on his camera footage. The logo matched with an outdoor company, Allen Company, which sells rifle cases.
The police report said, "it was believed that the male may possibly be wanting to ambush arriving police officers." Once police arrived at the scene, the reporting officer drew his gun and asked Wallace to drop the case.
An instructor from the local police academy watched the video and gave her take on the police officer's actions.
“They make very clear what their wishes are their demands they don't react too quickly or too slowly. Once they had sufficient personnel there, they started to move in again, articulating very, very clearly what they expected of the individual," Rosemary Arway said.
Once the officer stated why he was being detained, Wallace claimed he dropped the case. The report said Wallace's continued failure to listen to commands is why the officer deployed his taser.
Wallace said he was on his knees with one hand in the air and the other on his phone when he was tased.
“I believe those police officers are wrong for what they did to me and I think they are just trying to cover up," he said.
Arway said the officers did the right thing.
“The result, I think, speaks volumes; they were safe the individual safe, the fire department, was able to reopen and provide critical services to the City of Cape Coral," she said.
Wallace was arrested and charged with resisting without violence. He will be expected to appear in a Lee County Courtroom on January 25th. He said he will continue exercising his First Amendment rights in the area until his court date.
