Man arrested on DUI, drug charges

Man arrested on DUI, drug charges
after crashing car into shoppers
A Sanibel Island man was arrested Monday after his car
jumped a sidewalk at a south Fort Myers store, injuring
three elderly people.
Curtis Vincent Gates Jr., 39, of the 1500 block of Periwinkle
Way, was charged with driving while under the influence
of alcohol or drugs, producing drugs and three counts of
property damage.
According to Lee County Sheriff's Office reports:
About 3:30 p.m., a 1993 Ford Taurus plowed into a cart on
Gates
injured.
the front sidewalk of Dollar General, 8750
Gladiolus Drive.
"The cart slammed one victim into the
door, breaking the glass, and the other was
thrown through the open door onto the
ground inside the store," the deputy wrote.
A woman was taken to a hospital as a trauma
alert because of low blood pressure. Her
husband was brushed by the car and not
seriously injured. Another man also was
The victims are in their late 80s and from Fort Myers,
according to the report. Their names were not immediately
released.
Gates told witnesses his car's brakes went out as he backed
into a parking spot. Instead of checking on the victims, he
checked the brake fluid. He told a deputy the power steering
unit went out
As deputies spoke to him, he put a white pill in his mouth
and said it was Tylenol, then said: "I mean nothing." The
driver continued to talk to deputies and a small white
chunk fell from his mouth to the ground. It was identified
as Xanax.
He passed out in the patrol car on the way to jail and
again at the jail.
Gates failed field sobriety tests but refused to take a
breath test, saying: "(Expletive) it. I can ride my bike to
work for that."
Naples Daily News
Collier County
April 20,2011