110 W. New York Ave., DeLand, FL
386-734-4622
Sentenced to 90 days in April robbery at Ritter's
By Pat Hatfield
posted Jun 26, 2008 - 3:00:35pm
Police identified the suspected carjacker shot June 24 as 20-year-old Daniel P. Hendricks of Enterprise, the same man who robbed Ritter’s Towne Pharmacy in April.
In a fatal midday furor, Hendricks led DeLand and Orange City police and Volusia County Sheriff’s deputies from DeLand to Orange City, commandeering and crashing three vehicles on the way.
The spree began when Hendricks stole a work truck from Stetson University. It ended, three carjackings later, with Hendricks shot dead by Orange City Police, as he rammed vehicles and nearly ran over a detective who was ordering him to stop and surrender.
Hendricks created a trail of destruction, police said. He was spotted speeding southbound in the northbound lane of U.S. Highway 17-92 with an innocent 10-year-old boy in the back seat of one hijacked vehicle. He threatened motorists with knives and perhaps even a meat cleaver, as he forcibly stole three cars.
Building contractors working at Stetson reported seeing the suspect, later identified as Hendricks, steal the university work truck. They said he was acting strangely — holding knives to his own throat and stomach.
The report of that theft and the first carjacking came in to dispatchers about 12:45 p.m. The report of shots fired at Four Townes Shopping Center in Orange City came just nine minutes later.
***
Hendricks’ crazed course took him southbound on U.S. Highway 17-92. After trading the Stetson truck for a gray vehicle he carjacked at ABC Fine Wine & Spirits, Hendricks squealed tires through the West Volusia Regional Shopping Center.
Alyse Milano was at work at Payless ShoeSource.
“I was in the front of the store when I heard the squealing and the sound of metal on metal. A huge white van came up onto the curb,” she said.
Milano thought for a moment the van might come through the glass storefront.
Milano said she thinks the driver of the van was trying to help police stop the vehicle.
“I saw a police vehicle behind the van,” she said, but she didn’t get a good look at the vehicle between the van and the police car. She heard later it was a carjacked vehicle.
Leaving the shopping center, Hendricks crashed again on Orange Camp Road, police said, and used force to steal a red Taurus sedan, pulling the female driver out, but leaving her 10-year-old son in the back seat for a terrorizing ride to Orange City.
At Four Townes Shopping Center, Hendricks crashed into another car before spinning into the grass near Stacey’s Homestyle Buffet. There, the 10-year-old boy escaped, unharmed, police said.
Orange City Police saw Hendricks run across the parking lot to a Dodge Dakota and pull an older man from that vehicle.
Orange City Detective Ken Jones and Detective Sgt. Jason Sampsell had the suspect blocked at that point, in their unmarked police Ford Expedition.
According to Jones’ report, Hendricks rammed the Expedition parked behind the Dakota and slammed into another vehicle in front of the Dakota a couple of times, then almost ran down Jones before Sampsell fired.
Even with bullets in him, Hendricks’ foot was on the gas as he tried to get away, Jones wrote in his report.
He died a short time later at Florida Hospital-Fish Memorial.
***
Sampsell was off-duty, on administrative leave June 25, as is normal in cases when law-enforcement officers shoot at suspects. Both Detective Jones and Orange City Police Chief Jeff Baskoff reported Sampsell was doing well.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the case, as is customary when an officer discharges his firearm.
Just released from jail
Spokeswoman Linda Pruitt of the State Attorney’s Office confirmed Hendricks had been released from jail June 22, after doing time for the April 11 robbery of Ritter’s Towne Pharmacy, 120 E. New York Ave. in Downtown DeLand.
Hendricks entered the store, then, after looking at a couple of items, handed a note to the clerk behind the register.
It read, “Give me Oxycontin 80 mg — I have a gun.”
Oxycontin is a powerful pain medication. It’s sometimes stolen and sold on the street.
A fingerprint on one of the items the robber handled led DeLand investigators to Hendricks. Store employees identified the young man from a photo lineup, and, on April 14, arrested him at the home of a relative in DeLand, where he was staying.
Despite what his note said, Hendricks had not actually had a gun when he robbed Ritter's Towne Pharmacy, police said.
On May 8, Hendricks pleaded guilty to the robbery, Pruitt said.
He was sentenced to 90 days in jail, plus probation, and was released from jail June 22. Hendricks was given credit for time served, starting with the April arrest. He also got credit for “gain time” — time credited for good conduct.
According to a booking official at the Volusia County Correctional Facility, inmates generally are credited with five days of gain time for every 30 days served. They can earn additional gain time for participating in educational and behavioral programs.
Hendricks earned a total of 35 gain days.
His jail time was supposed to be followed by 12 months of “community control,” also known as house arrest. Another 12 months of drug-offender probation would have followed the community-control time, Pruitt said.
According to Florida Probation and Parole spokeswoman Jo Ellyn Rackleff at Tallahassee headquarters, Hendricks checked in with Volusia County probation officer Christopher Groves on Monday, June 23. Groves made a visit to Hendricks’ home, and reported everything looked OK there.
Hendricks was supposed to have gone for a job interview with a tree service June 24, the day of the carjacking spree, according to Probation and Parole records.
Reader Comments
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He was a good young man, and just that a young man, he mad some bad choices, that ended in a horrid way, but everyone makes mistakes, and i believe with all my heart he was not him true self when he made them, not Daniel.
He was a fighter, he believed in love and his family, in you. regarless of what everyone else on this dang internet says, Daniel was a good guy, and he loved you with all his heart.
Stay strong sweetie, it will get better with time!!!
"Death leaves a heart ache no one can heal, love leaves a heart ache no can steal"
God Bless
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