Anthony DeFeo, combative with deputies responding to 9-1-1 call of suspicious person in Deltona roadway, screams: 'I'm gonna die tonight!'
Photos for Headline Surfer® / DAYTONA BEACH -- A Daytona Beach News-Journal reporter bonded out of the Volusia County Branch Jail this morning after he was arrested and booked on two felony charges for allegedly fighting with deputies while intoxicated -- including kicking one in the mid-section -- when they responded to a 9-1-1 call of suspicious person in the middle of a road in Deltona.
The first responding deputy reported 24-year-old Anthony DeFeo, screaming: "I'm gonna die tonight!"
DeFeo then became physically violent and kicked the deputy in the mid-section. It took several deputies to force him into the back of a squad car during which he began kicking the roof.
At that point, the deputies physically tied his feet to the floor of the car with a restraining device, but he continued a verbal onslaught during his transport to the Volusia County Branch Jail where he was booked on felony charges: battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest with violence, charges, that if upheld as felony convictions, could net him 10 years in prison.
At this point, he's presumed innocent unless or until proven and adjudicated guilty. DeFeo was released on bail after posting the $3,000 bond.
Reached by phone just after 3 p.m., DeFeo was asked his employment status with the Daytona Beach News-Journal where he has worked for two years now as a reporter covering DeLand municipal government working out of the newspaper's recently opened DeLand bureau.
"I really don't know if I still have a job," DeFeo told HeadlineSurfer.com when contacted by phone for comment just after 3 p.m., declining to answer any further questions, citing the felony criminal charges he now faces.
Messages sent to News-Journal Editor Pat Rice through a private Facebook message and through his newsroom email went unanswered, though Rice clicked on the social media message, which indicated he saw the private message inquiry regarding DeFeo.
Rice was also contacted through Twitter as was the newspsper's parent company, Gatehouse Media of upstate New York, seeking an explanation as to why the news on DeFeo's arrest has not been reported, but those inquiries have gone unanswered, too.