Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Cameron Dean Barlow, 21, was arrested Saturday after allegedly driving a stolen car over landscaping at a hotel and crashing the car into a tree; he is on probation following a DUI conviction, and his driver’s license is suspended.

The owner of the car told the responding Gainesville Police Department officer that Barlow has been staying with her family since March and they had all gone to an event on Saturday; she said when they returned to the hotel (Woodspring Suites Gainesville I-75, 5505 SW 41st Blvd) at about 12:30 p.m., Barlow asked for permission to sit in the vehicle and smoke. She said she left her car keys with him so he could have air conditioning and told him to lock it up and bring her the keys when he returned to their room. She said she did not give him permission to drive her vehicle, but a short time later, Barlow ran to her and said she was going to be mad at him because he had crashed her car.

The owner of the car reportedly told the officer that Barlow had been drinking that morning but seemed okay when they were all together; she also reportedly said that he regularly uses medical marijuana and “oil carts,” which she described as some type of THC. She reportedly said she had never seen Barlow act the way he had that day.

The officer reported that when she arrived, Barlow walked up to her vehicle before she even got out, turned with his hands behind his back, and told her to take him to jail. She said she explained that it didn’t work like that and she needed to do her investigation. She said that when she asked him what was going on, he started yelling at her and said he was on probation and would end up in jail, anyway. The officer said she told him to stop yelling and sit down.

The officer reported that Barlow’s behavior continued to escalate, and he called her names and said he hates cops; she eventually decided to detain him in handcuffs because he refused to obey her instructions. She reported that he pulled away from her, so she took out her taser and told him to sit down; she said he sat down but kept yelling at her and trying to get up, so she eventually held him down and waited for backup.

After backup arrived, officers placed Barlow in the back seat of a patrol car, where he allegedly continued yelling at the four officers and resisting their efforts. Once he was in the patrol car, he allegedly began kicking and slamming his head against the windows, window bars, and the plexiglass separator. Officers applied a rip hobble to his feet, but he allegedly continued slamming his head on various surfaces. Officers called EMS, and paramedics reportedly sedated him enough to transport him to a local hospital.

At one point, Barlow reportedly yelled that the owner of the car “asked him to move the car and she knew he was drunk.”

A witness told the officer that she saw Barlow in the car on one side of the building and that he had the vehicle in gear and was revving it up; she said he took off at a high rate of speed and drove in circles around the hotel, back and forth over hedges and shrubs, before backing into a parking space, where he laid his head on the horn for a while. She said he drove out of the parking space and around the hotel before driving straight over the curb and into a tree; he then ran into the hotel and came back outside, took a liquor bottle (later determined to be a 1.75-liter bottle of New Amsterdam passionfruit vodka) out of the passenger side of the vehicle, and threw it toward the building. The officer reported finding the bottle on the ground near the building.

The estimated damage to the car was unavailable, but the officer reported that it was extensive and possibly a total loss.

The officer reported that in the hospital, Barlow repeatedly asked the owner of the car to drop the charges and protect him from being arrested.

Barlow was arrested in Levy County on March 29 and charged with driving under the influence. On May 6, he entered a plea of nolo contendere to the charge and was adjudicated guilty, with a sentence of 12 months of probation; his driver’s license was also suspended for six months. The terms of his probation require him to get an alcohol/drug evaluation and follow the recommended treatment plan; he is not permitted to have any alcohol or drugs, with random screenings, and a new violation of the law will violate his probation.

Barlow has been charged with grand theft of a motor vehicle, resisting an officer without violence, and driving with a suspended license. Judge Meshon Rawls set bail at $25,000.

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.