{"id":107534,"date":"2024-10-17T12:03:43","date_gmt":"2024-10-17T12:03:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/florida-man-arrested-for-threatening-utility-workers-restoring-power-after-hurricane-milton\/"},"modified":"2024-10-17T12:03:43","modified_gmt":"2024-10-17T12:03:43","slug":"florida-man-arrested-for-threatening-utility-workers-restoring-power-after-hurricane-milton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/florida-man-arrested-for-threatening-utility-workers-restoring-power-after-hurricane-milton\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida man arrested for threatening utility workers restoring power after Hurricane Milton"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/syndication.abcaudio.com\/files\/2024-10-17\/GETTYRF_12822_ElectricSubstation.jpg\" alt><figcaption>Robert Brook\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>(NEW YORK) &#8212; A man was arrested Wednesday for threatening utility workers who were restoring power in Hillsborough County, Florida, following mass outages caused by Hurricane Milton, according to officials.<\/p>\n<p>Crews were working on a road repair when the man allegedly verbally threatened them and drove his vehicle toward them in an intimidating manner.<\/p>\n<p>The Hillsborough County Sheriff&#8217;s Office has identified the suspect as 57-year-old Kenneth Ray Velasco.<\/p>\n<p>When the incident occurred, a power line crew was working on a road that was closed for repairs, creating a traffic delay. The man was in his vehicle and grew impatient.<\/p>\n<p>He backed into a utility pole and fence, causing an estimated $1,000 in damage, according to official reports, and then attempted to flee the scene.<\/p>\n<p>When the linemen tried to prevent him from leaving, he drove toward them in a deliberate manner that caused them to jump out of the way and also threatened to shoot them, officials said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Linemen have been working tirelessly to restore power after the storm,&#8221; said Sheriff Chad Chronister. &#8220;For this person to threaten their lives and deliberately endanger them, all because of a traffic delay, shows a disturbing lack of regard for the safety of others and the critical work being done.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Velasco was pulled over in a traffic stop and charged with aggravated assault and felony criminal mischief for vandalism of property, according to the sheriff&#8217;s office.<\/p>\n<p>He was arrested without incident, officials said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re grateful no one was seriously hurt, and this suspect will face the full extent of the law for his egregious crimes,&#8221; the sheriff said.<\/p>\n<p>As of Wednesday evening, nearly 20,000 residents of Hillsborough County are without power.<\/p>\n<p>The investigation into the incident is ongoing.<\/p>\n<p><em>ABC News&#8217; Victoria Arancio contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Robert Brook\/Getty Images (NEW YORK) &#8212; A man was arrested Wednesday for threatening utility workers who were restoring power in Hillsborough County, Florida, following mass outages caused by Hurricane Milton, according to officials. Crews were working on a road repair when the man allegedly verbally threatened them and drove his<span class=\"more-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/florida-man-arrested-for-threatening-utility-workers-restoring-power-after-hurricane-milton\/\">Read More &rarr;<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[156,31,2],"tags":[273,271,276,274,270,123,275,133,124,272,102,103],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107534"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107534\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}