By DON FLETCHER
News Staff Writer
The following felony arrests were reported by Atmore Police Department (APD) officers during the period October 11-18:
Ciara Bankester
Bankester, apparently under the influence of some substance, was arrested after police were called to Atmore Community Hospital (ACH), where staff reported problems with “an intoxicated person that had been transported via ambulance to the emergency room due to her irrational and irate behavior.”
Reports show police showed up around 6:20 a.m. on October 15 to discover the suspect, later identified as the 29-year-old Biloxi, Miss. woman, had run from the hospital before they arrived. One of the responding officers located Bankester a short distance away and tried to question her.
Police reports indicate Bankester was “delusional, irate, and didn’t know where she was,” so she was detained for public intoxication. The officer took her back to the hospital to be evaluated and treated.
Once back at the hospital, Bankester “kicked the emergency room doors multiple times and then kicked the officer as he was escorting her inside.” She continued “thrashing around while emergency room staff were attempting to restrain her,” and head-butted a second officer.
An officer searched her purse and discovered a vape that had an unknown residue inside. The residue field-tested positive for cathinones, otherwise known as “bath salts.”
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, cathinones is “chemically similar to ephedrine, cathine, methcathinone, and other amphetamines.”
Bankester was evaluated and treated by ACH staff, then released from the hospital and placed under arrest. She is charged with one count of possession of a controlled substance, two counts of third-degree assault and one count of public intoxication.
She was booked into the Escambia County Detention Center (ECDC), where she remained early Tuesday, October 22.
Adam Countryman
The 41-year-old Atmore man was arrested on a felony drug charge October 10 after his vehicle was pulled over because its occupants weren’t wearing seatbelts.
The traffic stop was conducted around 5:15 p.m., on Martin Luther King Drive. As the reporting officer talked with the occupants, he “observed suspicious behavior and was given consent to search the vehicle.”
The search turned up more than 15 grams of a substance that field-tested positive for methamphetamine, along with “other items typically used to contain narcotics.”
Countryman was booked into the ECDC on one count each of possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia. He remained in the county jail early Tuesday, October 22.