Screaming man on high school baseball field forces players to take cover at Lake Weir High School
Marion County sheriff’s deputies hurried to Lake Weir High School last week after receiving a call for help from coaches at the facility.
When deputies arrived at the school, located at 10351 SE Maricamp Rd., early last Thursday night, they found 46-year-old Taj A. Jones on the ground at the second base area of the facility’s baseball field. Jones, of Bothell, Wash., was “screaming and causing a disturbance,” a sheriff’s office report states.
Deputies detained Jones and put him in handcuffs, then spoke with three of the school’s coaches who told them that Jones jumped a chain-link fence by the facility’s agriculture farm while they were conducted a baseball practice. They said Jones then took off his shirt and shoes and “began running around the baseball and soccer field,” the report says.
Due to the nature of Jones “peculiar” behavior, the coaches believed their students weren’t safe, so they pulled them into the dugout. The coaches also asked Jones to leave but he refused to do so, the report says.
Jones was transported to the Marion County Jail and charged with charged with trespassing on school grounds and disturbing the peace/interfering with school administration functions. He is being held on no bond and is scheduled to appear in court on Nov. 28 to answer to the charges.