PANAMA CITY — The mother of an Alabama visitor on whom police opened fire upon Sunday after a car chase said her son fled officers because he thought he was being robbed.
Lafabian Lawson, 23, was arrested early Sunday after a pursuit from Panama City Police Department ended in gunfire. Lawson has been charged with aggravated fleeing and eluding with injury, driving with a suspended or revoked license and leaving the scene of an accident with more than $50 in damage, according to court records.
Lawson, a visitor from Montgomery, Ala., and his two passengers of the white Camaro were down to visit family, according to Bonita Lawson, the mother of Lafabian Lawson.
Bonita Lawson said the group had been pulled over by police moments before and released. When a large, unmarked truck closed in behind them fast, the three panicked and tried to get away, she said.
“They had no idea what was going on, and they thought they were getting robbed,” Bonita Lawson said. “That’s when the officers got out and started shooting.”
However, in a news release, PCPD said the driver of a fleeing white Camaro attempted to strike police officers with a vehicle. At that point, officers fired upon the driver.
PCPD officers reported they spotted the vehicle stopped at about 2:40 a.m. in the middle of U.S. Business 98 near the Watson Bayou Bridge. The car nearly struck the curb several times as officers neared to initiate a traffic stop, police said.
The driver pulled over and made eye contact with the officer before speeding off, police reported.
“As I exited my patrol car and began to walk toward the vehicle, Lawson sped off at a high rate of speed,” the officer reported. “I lost sight of the vehicle after it turned onto Beach Drive.”
A few minutes later, an unmarked vehicle in PCPD’s Street Crimes Unit (SCU) spotted the Camaro driving north on Harrison from 11th Street and called for a marked car. When SCU initiated a second traffic stop, the driver sped off again in reckless manner, officers reported.
The officers opened fire on the vehicle, but how much force PCPD used has not been released.
Lawson crashed in the 1900 block of Harrison Avenue shortly after and fled on foot, but he was captured a short time later. One passenger in the vehicle was treated and released for an injury to his arm, but the injury was not sustained in the gunfire. The other passenger was not injured.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the officer-involved shooting.
Lawson has been charged with aggravated fleeing and eluding with injury, driving with a suspended or revoked license and leaving the scene of an accident with more than $50 in damage.