Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Authorities shot a federal fugitive from Utah Tuesday morning, saying he pointed an assault rifle at them when they went to a Marathon trailer to arrest him on a tip.

Larkin Baggett, 53, was in unknown condition Tuesday night at a Miami hospital where he was flown.

No law enforcement officers were injured in the gunfire. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which is investigating the shooting, would not release details about the incident, such as how many bullets hit Baggett, from what kind of gun, and which officers from which agencies shot him.

"It sounded like fireworks were going off," said a nearby resident, who identified himself only as Chris B. "There were a dozen or so pops."

Authorities considered Baggett to be armed and dangerous because of the firepower he had in his car -- assault weapons and hundreds of rounds of ammunition -- when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) arrested him on pollution-related crimes in Utah in 2007.

"We were concerned about the number of weapons," said Melodie Rydalch of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Utah. The agency will begin working with Florida authorities to determine Baggett's future. "That will have to be sorted out."

EPA agents and sheriff's deputies said Baggett pointed a weapon at them soon after they saw him leave an 11th Street trailer, located in the middle of a fairly empty storage yard near the former Turn Key Marina site, sheriff's spokeswoman Becky Herrin said.

Property owner Jim Pierce said he wasn't aware anyone had been staying there. Another property owner, who Pierce said manages the yard, declined to comment to The Citizen.

Authorities said Baggett may have been in the area for several weeks.

Baggett, owner and operator of Chemical Consultants Inc., was indicted on four felony counts of violating the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and two felony counts of violating the Clean Water Act, including illegally treating and disposing of hazardous waste and illegally discharging acidic chemical wastes into a sewer system. He was released from federal custody pending his June 2008 trial. Arrest warrants were issued when he fled prosecution.

Baggett was one of the first 23 fugitives the EPA featured on a wanted list it developed for the first time last year. His wanted poster is available at http://www.epa.gov/fugitives.

EPA agents had met with local authorities to plan Baggett's capture, according to a statement the agency released Tuesday.

After the shoot-out, an ambulance took Baggett to the Seven Mile Bridge, where the sheriff's Trauma Star helicopter landed to take him to Ryder Trauma Center in Miami, accompanied by a law enforcement officer, Herrin said.

Traffic was stopped on the bridge during the transfer. The incident caused a stir in Marathon, as more than a dozen emergency vehicles converged on the scene.

"I thought my restaurant was burning down," said Brett Andresion, owner of a nearby eatery, Rum Bums Bar & Grill on U.S. 1 just south of 11th Street.

rbusweiler@keysnews.com