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Inset: Allie Barrentine (Bay County Jail). Background: A Walmart Supercenter in Panama City Beach, Fla. (Google Maps).
This week, an Alabama woman found herself in the headlines after being arrested in Florida following an aggressive confrontation with two elderly women. The altercation took place in the parking lot of a popular retail store, with authorities reporting that the woman was under the influence of alcohol and drugs at the time.
Allie Grace Barrentine, 25, faces serious charges including two counts of battery against individuals aged 65 or older. Additionally, she is charged with resisting an officer without violence and disorderly conduct. These charges were brought by the Panama City Beach Police Department.
The incident unfolded on Monday evening at a Walmart Supercenter situated on Panama City Beach Parkway. This area is a well-known resort destination along the Florida Panhandle. The events took place around 7:40 p.m., prompting a police response to the scene based on reports of an altercation.
According to a criminal complaint obtained by Law&Crime, Barrentine allegedly “actually and intentionally” struck the two elderly victims. At the time of the incident, the victims were in a vehicle navigating the same lane that Barrentine was walking through, resulting in the confrontation.
At the time, Barrentine “was walking through the parking lot” while one victim was the passenger in, and the other was the driver of, a vehicle “going down the same lane,” according to the charging document.
No inciting incident is mentioned in the affidavit – just the allegation of ensuing violence as the defendant and the car were in proximity.
“The defendant began to punch the vehicle,” the charging document reads. “The occupants of the vehicle exited and the defendant grabbed the victim”s left arm and broke one bracelet. The defendant also grabbed and pulled the victim by her necklace. The victim is approximately 69 years of age.”
The law enforcement narrative is largely repetitive in describing the initial moments of the alleged attack on the second woman, using substantially similar language as the first description.
But the second woman was injured differently, police said.
“The defendant began to punch the victim’s vehicle,” the charging document goes on. “The occupants of the vehicle exited, and the defendant grabbed the victim by the throat which had visible redness. The defendant also scratched the orbital area and punched the victim with a closed fist in the left eye. There was also visible rise in the area where she was scratched. The victim is approximately 65 years of age.”
Law enforcement arrived around 8 p.m. that night, the affidavit says.
At around 8:05 p.m., Barrentine made contact with responding officers and resisted arrest, according to the police department.
“While speaking with the defendant, she had the strong odor of an alcoholic beverage emanating from her breath, was unsteady on her feet and needing to lean on a vehicle to remain upright, and was slurring her speech heavily,” an officer wrote in the affidavit. “The defendant also admitted to consuming alcohol and Cannabis.”
After one officer told another officer the defendant was being charged and arrested, Barrentine was told “to face the vehicle and to place her arms behind her back,” police said.
Those commands, however, apparently did not go over well.
“The defendant became argumentative and refused to comply,” the police officer wrote, saying “she attempted to pull away multiple times” after being pushed “against the vehicle to secure her.”
Handcuffing Barrentine was allegedly not much easier.
“When swapping the defendant into flex cuffs and removing the original handcuffs, the defendant slipped the flex cuffs and pulled her left arm out, again attempting to pull away from us despite being ordered to stop resisting,” the charging document goes on. “After being secured in a patrol vehicle, the defendant tampered with the flex cuffs and removed them from her right wrist, requiring a different set of restraints to be used.”
Barrentine, who hails from Tuscaloosa, was detained in the Bay County Jail on a combined bond of $21,000.
Jail records currently do not list her as an inmate.
The defendant is next slated to appear in court on April 20, for her first arraignment, court records show.