Bodycam Video: Suspect Pulls Out Loaded Gun in Traffic Stop

Officials with the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office posted video footage that shows a man trying to pull out a loaded gun during a traffic stop.

The man, identified as 50-year-old Darren Moore in a CBS12 report, was pulled over by deputies on Oct. 13. Deputies said they could smell marijuana in his car, and they asked him to step out of his car.

After asking him several times, he finally gets out. In the video, Moore is seen dropping something on the ground, and the deputy on the scene believed it was a cellphone. However, he was surprised when he saw it was a handgun, the report said.

Volusia County Sheriff's Office footage shows a man trying to grab an officer's gun. Volusia County Sheriff's Office

Moore tried to flee the scene, but the officer grabbed him, telling him to drop the weapon

Moore was charged with aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, resisting arrest without violence, as well as several drug charges.

The sheriff’s office wrote that he had hydrocodone, or Vicodin, and other pills along with 22 small bags of marijuana.

“It’s not a good idea to run. It’s not a good idea to resist. It’s absolutely not a good idea to grab a loaded gun. This traffic stop could have ended differently. No one wants that—not us, not anyone,” said the sheriff’s office on Facebook.

Other details about the incident are not clear.

Volusia County is located in the east-central part of Florida, and it includes the city of Daytona Beach and Deltona.

Traffic Stops Are Dangerous for Police

In recent weeks, there have been several dramatic instances of police getting involved in shootouts or getting into dangerous situations with suspects during traffic stops.

On Sept. 18, a sheriff’s office in Colorado posted footage of a man rolling out of a stopped vehicle, pointing a gun at officers. “As he continued to advance out of the vehicle deputies shot Askins multiple times, fatally wounding him,” the office said.

The National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund (pdf) said traffic stops are notoriously dangerous for police officers in the United States. The leading causes for officers being shot and killed in 2017 occurred when they were responding to domestic incidents and while conducting traffic stops, the group’s annual report states.

And, according to the most recent figures published by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, “A greater percentage of male drivers (12 percent) than female drivers (8 percent) were stopped by police during 2011.” It adds: “In 2011, about 3 percent of traffic stops led to a search of the driver, the vehicle, or both. Police were more likely to search male drivers (4 percent) than female drivers (2 percent).”