By Steven Beardsley
Naples Daily News
FORT MYERS, Fla. — The last two times Arthur Lee Coleman ran, he got away, officers say.
This time he didn’t get far.
An elusive Fort Myers man with a long history of arrests for burglaries and thefts, Coleman was shot to death after he aimed his car at officers on foot and struck one of them, according to authorities.
The shooting came early Monday morning as a special task force closed in at Coleman’s ex-girlfriend’s home, where he was staying.
Coleman, 33, was shot at twice and killed in the driver’s seat of his white Acura, according to officials.
His ex-girlfriend, Kevondra Marion, 21, who was driving a Dodge Intrepid, was shot at once and wasn’t hit. Her two children - a 1-year-old and a 3-month-old - were inside the car, authorities said.
Coleman never brandished a gun, but officers said they later found a stolen handgun from a Lee County corrections officer in his car.
Authorities described the suspect as a violent criminal and pointed to a long record of arrests on charges ranging from vehicle theft to battery to failure to appear.
Only last week, he was the subject of a police chase, when Fort Myers police officers say they identified him driving a stolen truck. They never caught him.
“This individual is a very dangerous criminal, with an extensive criminal history,” said Lt. Robert Forrest of the Lee County Sheriff’s Office.
Yet, Coleman’s lawyer,
Michelle Berthiaume, said her client shouldn’t have been considered violent and that he was days away from surrendering to deputies for an outstanding warrant. She said she was shocked by the account of his death, which seemed out of character.
“He was so laid back and easygoing,” she said. “He would have walked into their hands easily.”
Family members who gathered at the scene Monday described the shooting as retaliation against Coleman, after he beat a 2006 murder charge from a Lee County Sheriff’s Office investigation.
“It all boiled down to, he made them look stupid. That’s no reason to kill him,” said Coleman’s cousin, Truniqua Tarver.
By late Monday morning, Coleman’s Acura showed signs of the encounter between him and the task force officers. Two bulletholes were visible on the driver-side windshield, and dried blood was streaked just below the driver-side door crack.
The car rested in a shallow drainage ditch in front of 116 Gibson St. for most of the morning, its passenger-side doors swung open. The Intrepid was just across the street, parked on the edge of a lawn.
Spokesmen for the Lee County Sheriff’s Office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) gave the following account of Monday’s shooting:
Around 5 a.m., a U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force, comprised of about 20 officers from the U.S. Marshals Service, Lee County and Charlotte County sheriff’s offices and the FDLE, closed in on 112 Gibson St., where they believed Coleman was staying with Marion.
The task force sought him on a warrant charging violation of probation stemming from a 2006 dealing in stolen property case.
As they moved toward the house, two cars pulled out of the driveway next door, at 116 Gibson St.
Coleman was driving the Acura, and Marion was behind the wheel of the Intrepid with her two young children from another relationship. Both cars drove toward officers as they tried to escape.
Coleman’s Acura struck a U.S. Marshal, authorities say.
“At that point, the members of the task force felt threatened and (saw) the need to defend themselves, given the circumstances,” Forrest said.
A task force officer fired two rounds at Coleman, killing him.
A Fort Myers police officer, on hand to aid the task force, fired at Marion’s car and hit the front hood. She then turned the car around and pointed it at one of the officers, Marion’s arrest report states. When the officer pulled a shotgun, she stopped the car.
The officers discovered the two children when they went to arrest Marion.
Marion is charged with aggravated assault of an officer. Her children were turned over to relatives.
None of the officers involved in the account were identified. The marshal struck by Coleman’s car was taken to the hospital, but his injuries were minor, said Francisco Hidalgo, an FDLE spokesman.
Inside Coleman’s car, officers discovered a handgun stolen months ago from a Lee County corrections deputy, the spokesmen said. The gun was in the deputy’s car, which was parked in south Fort Myers, when it was taken.
Hart Hofacker, who lives on the corner of Alameda Avenue and Gibson Street, said his wife was preparing for her morning walk when they heard five or six gunshots.
“It sounded like firecrackers,” he said.
Lee County Sheriff Mike Scott visited the scene later in the morning.
The FDLE will investigate the shooting and release its findings in 30 to 45 days, Hidalgo said. The report then will be forwarded to the State Attorney’s Office.
Rumor spread in the community that Coleman had been shot in the back of the head. Hidalgo emphatically denied the account.
In 2006, Coleman was charged with the shooting death of Jose Torres, 26, after deputies alleged they found the murder weapon in his possession.
Berthiaume characterized the trial as “messy,” and she said it reflected poorly on the Lee County Sheriff’s Office.
After his acquittal, Coleman remained in jail on unrelated racketeering and grand theft charges. He was finally released on probation in August, following a plea deal with the State Attorney’s Office, according to Berthiaume.
In December, the Fort Myers Police Department released an open booking sheet for Coleman after undercover officers identified him breaking into a car on Boy Scout Drive. Again, Coleman escaped when chased, the report said.
The allegation surprised him, Berthiaume said, and Coleman told her he wanted to surrender himself quietly for the violation of probation warrant.
He said he was afraid what might happen if officers arrested him, Berthiaume recalled.
“He had some fear - I didn’t realize how reasonable it was at the time - he had some fear that his life was in danger,” she said.
Berthiaume told Coleman he had to make certain arrangements before she could call detectives, she said. He would have returned to her office this week, she said. Berthiaume never got to a point where she made contact with the Sheriff’s Office.
Coleman had two teenage children, family members said.
Hidalgo said authorities had no sign Coleman was preparing to turn himself in.
“As far as I know he had been eluding authorities, as far as vehicle (thefts) and all that,” he said.
Copyright 2009 Naples Daily News