ORLANDO, Fla. — Police officers pepper-sprayed a Florida doctor who acted erratically when he arrived at Orlando International Airport for a flight.
The Orlando Sentinel reports 59-year-old Jeffrey Epstein of Lakeland “threw his hands in the air” Thursday while yelling that “police had come to arrest him.” He’s charged with battery on an officer.
Video of the arrest went viral on social media after it showing him shouting that he was, “not resisting, you are treating me like a f—ing black person!”
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An arrest report says Epstein was removed from a ticket line and told he was prohibited from flying because of his behaviour, frothing at the mouth while yelling obscenities.
Epstein refused officers’ orders to leave the airport, and “continued to yell and say to arrest him,” police reported.
Police say he continued yelling and refused orders to leave the airport. After he resisted being handcuffed, he was taken down and pepper-sprayed. He said he “created a very big disturbance on purpose.”
“If you’re going to do this to a white doctor, who’s 59-years-old, for doing nothing, then why would black people trust you?” Jeffrey Epstein, of Lakeland, told NBC affiliate WESH after his release from jail.
Epstein runs a geriatric practice in Lakeland.