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By Times Staff
Published July 30, 2006

Swimming fugitive arrested

ST. PETERSBURG - The last time Darius X. Walker was on the run from the law, he managed to get away by swimming across the Intracoastal Waterway in Redington Shores to Travatine Island, sheriff's officials said.

After a brief chase July 14 that ended in a car crash, deputies arrested three of Walker's friends on various charges. But Walker escaped, crawling through the snake- and bug-infested Travatine Island and eluding a Sheriff's Office manhunt.

But Walker, 19, had nowhere to hide Saturday morning when deputies came to his friend's residence at 4129 32nd St. N, Apt. C in St. Petersburg. So he tried to escape by jumping out of a second-floor window.

Deputies quickly arrested Walker without incident about 1:30 a.m. Saturday on two counts of resisting arrest without violence, one count of grand theft auto and on an Orange County warrant for attempted carjacking. Walker, who wasn't hurt in the leap, was taken to the Pinellas County Jail.

Mac McMullen, a spokesman for the Sheriff's Office, said deputies acted on a tip from St. Petersburg police that led to the arrest.

Boat hits marker; 6 injured

HOMOSASSA - Six people were injured Saturday morning when a fishing boat hit a channel marker in the Homosassa River, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission reported.

A 12-year-old boy suffered serious injuries and was flown to St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa.

The other five who were injured were taken to Seven Rivers Regional Medical Center in nearby Crystal River, said commission spokeswoman Karen Parker.

The boat - named B-wiser - was a 23-foot Carolina skiff carrying three adults and six children, all family members.

They were returning from a morning fishing expedition about 11 a.m. when they hit channel marker 70 in Tiger Tail Bay, Parker said.

The boat was inoperable but did not sink. The seriously injured boy was put on a nearby boat and rushed to MacRae's of Homosassa, a nearby marina. The others were ferried back by another boater who towed in the damaged vessel, said Jason English, a MacRae's employee.

Anthony Watson, the boat's owner and a member of the family on the fishing trip, was driving at the time of the accident. The Homosassa resident is a licensed captain, but it was not a chartered fishing trip, Parker said.

He could not be reached for comment. The identities of the other victims were not released.

[Last modified July 30, 2006, 05:36:23]