PANAMA CITY — A Tennessee man is facing charges of intoxicated driving after allegedly speeding past the Port Panama City front gate and into St. Andrew Bay, according to a Panama City Police Department news release.
Brett J. Mitchell, 29, was charged with trespassing and disorderly intoxication after police received calls of a 2009 Nissan Altima driving past the Port’s front-gate security at a high rate of speed and then off the dock into the bay. Mitchell also faces a charge of making a false report to law enforcement following the incident, PCPD reported.
Mitchell was initially elusive when police questioned him after being pulled from the water Sunday morning at about 1 a.m., officers reported. He eventually told the officers he’d earlier left the Gold Nugget, 3901 U.S. 98, after contacting a ride-sharing service, police said.
Mitchell claimed he was the passenger and that “he got into a vehicle with an unidentified Indian male and the next thing he remembered was being pulled from the vehicle,” PCPD reported.
Crew members aboard a tugboat that had just docked at the port heard a call over the radio about the crash. Just outside they could see Mitchell and the car slowly submerging, according to one boater who pulled Mitchell from the sinking car.
“He was pretty-well chilling in the driver-side,” said David Ruggirello, one of the crew members. “He obviously didn’t register what was going on. He was just sitting in there smoking an e-cigarette.”
Ruggirello said no one else was inside the car. And after he was able to get Mitchell’s attention, he was able to pull him from the open driver-side window moments before the car submerged and a cadre of police arrived.
PCPD reported that Mitchell did not damage any property upon entering the Port. Bay County Sheriff’s Officers with the dive unit were able to locate the car and did not find any occupants in or around the vehicle, PCPD reported.
Officers did find documents belonging to Mitchell’s wife within the vehicle, and the car was pulled from the water at about 6 a.m. As police sought to locate his wife, Mitchell made a spontaneous request at the Bay County Jail.
“Please don’t tell my wife what I did to her car,” officers quoted Mitchell as saying.
Mitchell of Jonesboro, Tennessee, could face additional charges, police reported.
The U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Customs and Panama City Fire and Rescue also responded to the crash. Since the incident happened at Port Panama City, federal code could apply as well as additional state and municipal charges, according to police.