Ormond Beach police looking for grand theft auto suspect - FOX 35 News Orlando

Ormond Beach police looking for grand theft auto suspect

Ormond Beach Police are looking for the second suspect in a grand theft auto drama Friday morning, which led a police officer to fire one shot.  Police are not saying who the suspect is, but one law enforcement source tells FOX 35 that he is a frequent visitor to the Volusia County Jail.

Gary Taylor was warming up his SUV Friday morning before taking his son to school.  He came outside of his home and saw a silver car there.

"I was totally dumbfounded.   I didn't realize until the guy in the vehicle said go, go, go that my vehicle was being stolen."

One suspect stole Taylor's SUV with a work trailer still attached.  The other suspect took off in the silver Mazda.  Taylor tried to stop them by hanging on to a ladder on his trailer, but he ended up with road rash.

Taylor says, "I couldn't tell you who was in my car.  I never did see the person in there.  All I saw was the guy in the getaway car."

The suspects parked the trailer at a nearby home because one of them knows the owner vaguely.  One suspect went inside to use the bathroom.  Bart Bowers says all of a sudden the SUV is tearing through his front yard and a motor cycle cop is shooting at it.

Bowers says, "That's when I yelled, 'shots fired, shots fired.'  My roommate said 'what?' and I said 'There's shots fired in the front yard.'  That's when I came down and there's cops drawn, guns drawn."

Bowers suddenly finds himself between the suspect and the police.  "I have one in the bathroom and two cops coming in the front door and I'm in the middle and I'm thinking I'd better duck."

Cops arrested nineteen year old Devonte Smokes.  The other suspect took off in Taylor's SUV, which was later recovered. Police say an officer shot at that man after the suspect tried to run him down.  

Police also recovered the silver Mazda, which turned out to be stolen.  They found two handguns inside and they are testing them to see if those weapons are stolen.

Devonte Smokes has been arrested three times in Volusia County since 2010.  He has been arrested on charges of grand theft, grand theft auto, burglary to a structure and other charges.