CRESTVIEW — A man is in Okaloosa County Jail facing charges of vehicle theft and battery following a Friday morning incident.
Crestview Police officers responded to Robinson Avenue East and Ferdon Boulevard South, a block from Central Baptist Church, following an 8:50 a.m. report of a stolen vehicle.
There they found suspect Cameron Marquise Patterson, 23, “on the ground being detained” by the church’s pastor, the Rev. Paul Mixon, church employee Chad McCauley, “and other bystanders,” according to the incident report.
A few minutes earlier, upon receiving notice from McCauley that the church’s black Honda sedan was being driven away by an unauthorized user, Mixon, a Crestview Police Reserve officer and chaplain with the agency, pursued the vehicle in his personal truck.
After blocking the car’s exit from a nearby alley, Mixon removed the keys from the vehicle and directed the suspect to remain in the car. Patterson allegedly told Mixon “he had found the vehicle and was transporting it across the street,” according to the report.
However, Mixon stated to police, “Patterson then exited the vehicle and punched him in the left side of the face.”
“Rev. Mixon stated he then restrained Patterson on the ground until law enforcement arrived,” the report stated.
Patterson was arrested and then transported to North Okaloosa Medical Center by Okaloosa County EMS after complaining of a possibly dislocated shoulder.
Following treatment he was transported to Okaloosa County Jail.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview preacher punched while pursuing car thief suspect