LCPD searching for assailant who smashed windows at lunch time Friday.
An unidentified man smashed out a side window at the Columbia Courthouse Annex on Friday by throwing a hammer through it. He also broke a window on a county employee’s car with the hammer. If you recognize this man, call the Lake City Police Department at 386-752-4343. (COURTESY)
A hammer-wielding man who attacked the Columbia County Tax Collector’s Office midday Friday is still unknown and on the loose.
The Lake City Police Department is still investigating the incident that occurred at 11:30 a.m. Friday, but has no new information about the unhinged assailant or the reason for the attack.
“It’s a scary situation, the world we live in nowadays that people can do that,” Tax Collector Kyle Keen said Tuesday about the incident in which a side office window at the annex was smashed as well as a window on an employee’s vehicle. “If you’re not safe in the middle of daylight in downtown Lake City.”
According to an LCPD report as well as surveillance footage from the Columbia County Courthouse Annex, a black car drove into the entrance of the Tax Collector’s drive-through lane Friday before an unknown white male stopped the car and got out.
The man then walked up to an employee’s SUV parked in employee space beside the drive-through lane and smashed the driver’s door window with a long-handled hammer.
He then walked down the drive-through lane and threw the hammer into a side window at the annex, smashing it. The hammer bounced off the building on his first throw, before he picked it up and was successful on his second attempt, the video showed.
According to the LCPD report, both the vehicle damaged and the office window belonged to the same employee at the Tax Collector’s office.
“Is he targeting (the employee)?” Keen asked Tuesday. “We can’t figure it out.”
The identity of the suspect is also still unknown, according to LCPD spokesmen Greg Burnsed and Sgt. Mike Lee.
Lee said the investigation into the incident is ongoing.
“They’re actively working it, but we’ve got nothing new,” Lee said.
Keen said his employee did not recognize the suspect and his staff and the authorities have reviewed video surveillance from several days leading up to the incident and could not spot the man visiting the office.
After smashing the office window, the surveillance video showed the man return to his car and back out of the driveway and exited toward Duval Street.
Regularly busy and, at times, backed up, the drive-through lane at the office was empty during the mid-day attack.
Keen noted that has not aided in identifying the suspect. Had someone pulled in behind the suspect’s car, he would have had to pull through and the license plate number on the car would have been captured.
The LCPD was quiet about the incident until contacted by the Reporter on Tuesday.
Lake City Police Chief Gerald Butler, who was off over the weekend, was surprised to learn of the incident when contacted by the Reporter on Tuesday afternoon, expressing concern.
Lee said the agency has no set protocol for sharing information about cases, including asking for help in identifying suspects, with the public through its social media channels.
“In part, it depends, obviously, on the solvability of the case and the likelihood of something on social media will help,” Lee said. “That has to be weighed with the chance of putting it on social media will hinder (the case).”
Keen, weighing the safety and well-being of his employees, asked for and received additional security at the annex from Columbia County Sheriff Mark Hunter.
“They’re a little nervous, which can be expected,” Keen said of his staff. “We’ve never had anything like that happen to us. It’s kind of scary when you think about it. Broad daylight, 11:30 on Friday and somebody comes and throws a hammer through your window. It can be scary. It can be nerve-wracking for sure.
“I hope we catch him and I want him punished to the full extent of the law. That’s an attack on my people and I don’t like that at all.”