Suspect Drowns After Car Chase in Stolen Deputy’s Car
PalmBeachPost.com - By Rani Gupta, Palm Beach, FL
02/02/04
An ex-convict drowned after he led police on a chase in a stolen sheriff’s deputy’s car and then leaped into a canal to get away, according to the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office.
Alonzo J. Townsent of Fort Pierce jumped into the Belcher Canal early Saturday after police and deputies chased him to the north end of the 17th Street, said Sgt. Troy Church of the St. Lucie Sheriff’s Office
Officers pleaded with Townsend to swim to shore, Church said.
"By the time he got to the center of the canal, he basically went under and they couldn’t locate him," he said. "It was a tragic decision of the part of the subject."
Townsend, 31, had spent little more than a year of his adult life as a free man. Charged with murder and arson at 17, Townsent had spent 13 years in prison before his release in November 2002. He was on probation at the time of his death.
The sheriff’s dive team searched the canal, Church said, and found Townsend’s body about an hour after he disappeared. The water was 16 feet deep and its temperature 52 degrees. Paramedics could not revive Townsend.
Towsend was sent to prison for helping set a fire that killed a pregnant Port St. Lucie woman in July 1988. A neighbor hired Townsend, then 17, and two other teenagers to burn down the rooming house of Tamra Glynn Mendez, 28, who was five months pregnant.
Townsend pleaded no contest to second-degree murder and arson. He previously had been convicted of grand theft and burglary. He would have been under community supervision until 2012.
Fort Pierce police are investigating the car theft, and the sheriff’s office is investigating the drowning.