Daytona Beach, FL – A homeless man with a long rap sheet is locked up for attacking a Daytona Beach homeless advocate and trying to take his minivan as the advocate passed out water bottles to needy people.
31-year-old Michael Speaks – whose address on the arrest report is listed as the homeless shelter on North Street in Daytona Beach – is held on $25,000 bond at Volusia County Jail on a felony carjacking charge as of 3:30pm Tuesday.
The Daytona Beach Police Department says the victim – 60-year-old Michael Pastore – wasn’t injured even though Speaks punched him in the head several times during the incident.
Pastore – who is well-known in the community as “Pastor Mike” and is often outspoken when it comes to homeless matters – told DBPD it all started around 12:45pm Sunday on the 600 block of North Ridgewood Avenue, next to the J Food Store.
According to the report, Pastore drove to the store with a friend in his blue 2000 Dodge Caravan, parked and got out of the driver’s seat to hand out water bottles to various homeless people hanging around in the parking lot.
It was while Pastore was handing out the bottles when police think Speaks snuck into the driver’s seat and tried to drive off while Pastore’s friend was still sitting in the front passenger seat.
The report noted that Pastore left the keys in the ignition and the motor running while he was handing out the water bottles, but managed to react quickly enough to jump into the vehicle through an open door as Speaks tried to drive away.
Both Pastore and his friend told officers they tried to stop the car by grabbing the gear shift and taking the key out of the ignition, but Speaks fought them off and actually turned around at one point to punch Pastore in the head while he was still behind the wheel.
The vehicle eventually stopped on the 300 block of North Street after Pastore and his friend regained control of the vehicle, but that’s when Speaks ran off on foot.
DBPD officers found Speaks later on that day on the 200 block of Kingston Avenue and took him into custody at that point.
VCJ records show Speaks has been booked there 29 other times since April 2004, including most recently in February 2014 for petit theft.
Michael Speaks (mugshot courtesy Volusia County Jail)
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