Officer resigns after armed robbery charge

Officials say the man violated 14 police policies and they were planning to fire him. He also faces a felony robbery charge.

By LEANORA MINAI

© St. Petersburg Times,
published June 15, 2001

ST. PETERSBURG -- A St. Petersburg police officer charged with attempted armed robbery resigned from the department Thursday before supervisors could fire him.

Antonio Garner, 32, violated 14 police policies, including lying to Internal Affairs and committing a misdemeanor crime by filing a false police report, police Chief Goliath Davis III said in a memo Thursday.

But Davis did not address the felony charge alleging that Garner tried to rob a man outside a Gulfport apartment complex earlier this year.

Garner, a former patrol and narcotics officer, goes to trial on charges of robbery and filing a false police report on Oct. 2.

His attorney, Jay Hebert, could not be reached for comment Thursday.

The former officer's troubles began Jan. 6 during a confrontation with Christopher Wayne Croley of St. Petersburg.

Garner told authorities the incident was over road rage and that Croley brandished a knife. But Croley said the officer pointed a black gun at him and demanded, "Give me everything you got!"

After a chase, both men jumped in their vehicles. Croley wrote down the license tag number of a Ford Bronco II and stopped to call 911.

Officers from the St. Petersburg Police Department responded and interviewed Croley. A police dispatcher informed the officers that the license tag number was Garner's.

Garner, meanwhile, called the Police Department to report that his wife had just been chased through the neighborhood in their Bronco.

Later, Garner told police that he was at the scene of the attempted armed robbery, but that it was actually a road rage incident because Croley went through a red light.

Garner, who worked for the department for seven years, said he lied about a man chasing his wife in a car because he was afraid of getting in trouble for his role in the alleged road rage incident.

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