Man accused of threatening deputy, family during Fort Myers Beach arrest

A man was arrested Wednesday afternoon after deputies say he refused to leave a Fort Myers Beach restaurant despite drunken unruliness and threatened a deputy and his family.

According to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, Jeremy Collins, 45, of North Naples, was arrested after deputies went to a restaurant where management asked to have Collins removed from the property. Security told LCSO that Collins had been asked multiple times to leave for being drunk and unruly.

A deputy found Collins sitting at a table and told him management had asked for deputies to remove him. Collins continually refused to move from the table until he eventually showed deputies his Florida ID, grabbed his belongings and walked towards the road. Collins stopped short of the sidewalk, still on the property, and continued confronting deputies.

When Collins was told he was officially trespassed from the property and could not return, he told deputies he would come back to the property whenever he felt like it and did not care about the trespass. Collins told a deputy that if a hand were laid on him, he would “f— you up.” The deputy tried then to arrest Collins, who fought against being handcuffed and ended up on the ground with the deputy.

Deputies searched Collins and found brass knuckles in his right coat pocket despite him not having a concealed weapons license; Collins said he picked it up while walking on the beach.

On the way to Lee Memorial Hospital to be medically cleared for jail, Collins repeatedly threatened the deputy who had arrested him, stating he was going to “find out where you live and stalk you and your family.” He added he “knows people who would kill you for fun.” LCSO says Collins continued to make threats all the way to the hospital. While in the hospital around the medical staff, Collins said he hated the deputy and will “f—-ing kill you,” and “that’s not a threat.”

Collins faces charges of failure to leave property upon order by owner (trespassing), resisting an officer without violence, carrying a concealed weapon without a license, and threatening a law enforcement officer with death or serious bodily harm (intimidation).