By DON FLETCHER
News Staff Writer
An Atmore man, free on summons for a weapons violation, apparently picked a bad time and place to gas up his truck, and an even worse time to be in possession of a controlled substance.
The man, 53-year-old Bruce Edward Day, was arrested Saturday, March 27, after an Escambia County (Fla.) deputy who was in Atmore spotted him pumping gas into his Ford F-150 at a South Main Street convenience store-gas station. The deputy followed Day into Florida and pulled him over at a liquor store just inside the state line.
According to the report filed by the Florida lawman, he recognized Day as the subject of an outstanding Atmore Police Department warrant charging him with possession of a handgun by a convicted felon.
Actually, said APD Chief Chuck Brooks, Day had been arrested last December after his vehicle was stopped for an equipment violation. Due to COVID-related issues at the county jail, the Atmore man was released on summons.
“On December 9, 2020, agents with the (Alabama Law Enforcement Agency) Drug Task Force conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle driven by Bruce Edward Day,” Brooks reported. “He appeared nervous and began talking aggressively to officers and began to resist. He put his hands inside a hoodie he was wearing, and the officers found a pistol inside the hoodie.”
Day was charged by drug agents with possession of a weapon by a convicted felon. He was on probation at the time from his 2012 murder conviction for the death of Woodrow “Token” Allen, who went missing in 2001 and whose body has never been found.
Things got worse for the local man when he arrived at the Escambia County (Fla.) Jail.
ECSO (Fla.) reports show that the arresting deputy, after turning Day over to jail personnel, checked the backseat of his patrol car and found a plastic bag that contained a white crystalline substance. The baggie was wedged beneath the frame of the roll bar that separates the front and back of the law enforcement vehicle.
A field test on the substance resulted in a positive reading for methamphetamine, and the vehicle’s camera showed that Day had apparently hidden something in the area where the drugs were found. He was charged in Florida with possession of a controlled substance and released to Alabama authorities.
He remained in the Escambia County Detention Center, where he is being held without bond, late Monday, April 5.