A convicted sex offender was arrested and a missing child recovered after a routine traffic stop erupted into violence, a foot chase and a high-speed pursuit in Florida.

The incident unfolded the morning of Dec. 31 in Flagler County, where sheriff’s deputies stopped a white Ford F-150 on U.S. Highway 1 after a tip from a concerned citizen who reported suspicious behavior.

The driver, identified as 60-year-old Darnell Hairston, was traveling with two juveniles, according to a release from the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office. Deputies soon discovered that one of the juveniles had been reported missing in neighboring St. Johns County and quickly secured the child, 11, in a patrol vehicle.

Moments later, bodycam video shows Hairston suddenly bolting from deputies, stumbling into the road and engaging in a struggle with deputies. Authorities say Hairston attempted to grab a deputy’s firearm before being subdued and arrested.

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Hairston was charged with resisting an officer with violence, attempting to disarm a law enforcement officer, kidnapping and child abuse, officials said. In a second update, the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office announced additional charges – including kidnapping and child abuse – against Hairston.

As deputies focused on Hairston, the second juvenile, 15-year-old Junior Bishop, allegedly jumped into the truck and sped away.

Dash camera video captured the teen speeding away from the traffic stop and narrowly missing a deputy standing in the road. Video showed deputies pursuing the vehicle south on U.S. Highway 1.

A high-speed chase began, with Bishop allegedly driving into oncoming traffic and weaving in between lanes before ramming into a deputy’s patrol vehicle.

Both cars were seen crashing into a wooded area and causing the suspect’s vehicle to roll over.

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Bishop was taken into custody and charged with aggravated fleeing and eluding, aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer, reckless driving, driving without a license and resisting an officer without violence. Bishop is expected to be turned over to the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice.

During the pursuit, a second deputy crashed into an automotive repair building in Bunnell. Two deputies suffered minor injuries and were treated and released from a local hospital, police said. Bishop was evaluated and not seriously injured, authorities said.

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Hairston was booked into the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility without bond pending a first court appearance. According to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office, Hairston is a registered sexual offender and was released from the Florida Department of Corrections in 2009, where he had been serving a 12-year sentence for three counts of false imprisonment. 

He has a lengthy arrest history, including previous arrests for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, burglary with assault or battery, cruelty toward wife, disorderly intoxication, lewd or lascivious offenses committed upon a child, property damage and sexual battery.

Authorities say that following Hairston’s arrest, deputies confirmed that the 11-year-old had been reported missing three days earlier, and he was transported to a hospital for medical treatment. 

During an interview with authorities, the child said he had been lured to a wooded campsite in Flagler Estates, where Hairston choked him until he lost consciousness. After regaining consciousness, the 11-year-old told detectives, he was threatened with a knife and a gun, tied up with shoelaces and an extension cord, and had duct tape placed over his mouth. He also told detectives that Hairston held him at the campsite for multiple days and made him travel on the floorboard of his truck covered by a blanket.

Deputies said that after the interview with the child, they returned to the campsite and recovered multiple items, including duct tape, video surveillance equipment, and weapons consistent with the child’s statements.

During an interview with Hairston, detectives determined that he knew the boy was missing and endangered, but he could not explain any reason for keeping the child from his parents when he knew that law enforcement was actively searching for him.

On Jan. 2, detectives obtained an arrest warrant for Hairston for kidnapping of a child under 13, aggravated child abuse, battery by strangulation, and robbery with a deadly weapon. Detectives served the warrant at the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility, where Hairston was already being held on a $125,000 bond for the prior arrest. He is now being held without bond.

Bishop may be facing additional charges once the investigation is concluded, officials said.

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Sheriff Rick Staly said the case remains under investigation, including how the sex offender, the teen suspect and the missing child were connected.

“This was a very suspicious incident that is still under investigation by our detectives, but I am thankful that nobody was seriously hurt and that we were able to recover a missing child from this pervert’s grasp,” he said. “I also do not understand why a pervert who was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2004 was released after only five years in 2009. Clearly, he has not learned anything!”

A man who failed to stop his boat after fatally striking a 15-year-old high school student and ballerina in 2024 has pleaded guilty in the deadly boating incident.

The man’s attorneys had previously noted that he did not realize he had hit someone with his vessel, according to WTVJ.

Ella Adler, the granddaughter of then-U.S. Ambassador to Belgium Michael Adler, had been wakeboarding and had fallen into the water, according to the Key Biscayne Independent, which noted that boater Carlos Guillermo “Bill” Alonso fatally hit her in his 42-foot-Boston Whaler.

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A statement provided to Fox News Digital by Alonso’s attorney, Lauren Field Krasnoff, described the incident as a “tragic accident.”

“Our hearts go out to the Adler family. This was a tragic accident, and, of course, Bill never intended to hurt anyone that day. Bill’s decision to plead guilty was driven by his hope that doing so would cause less pain to Ella’s family and help shine a light on the Ella Riley Adler Foundation,” the statement noted.

Alonso pleaded guilty on Monday to misdemeanor careless boating, according to The Miami Herald.

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The teen killed in the boating incident had performed in “The Nutcracker” over 100 times with the Miami City Ballet, the Key Biscayne Independent noted.

“Ella was extraordinary. She radiated joy, kindness and creativity in every room she entered. She was a devoted daughter, a beloved sister and a fierce and loyal friend,” Adler’s father, Matthew, said in a statement read in court, according to the outlet. 

“Her life was filled with love, laughter, dance and meaning. Ella didn’t just live. She danced through life.”

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The outlet reported that Alonso was sentenced to 12 months of probation as part of a plea agreement and that he is able to have his probation terminated after six months. Provided he fulfills the court’s conditions, he will be able to petition the court for his guilty pleas to be vacated, the outlet reported.

Edmund Richard Hartley, the captain of the vessel that had been towing Adler, has also been charged, but he has pleaded not guilty, according to The Miami Herald.

President Donald Trump is asking the office of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to reimburse him more than $6.2 million in attorney fees and costs in the wake of the recently dismissed 2020 election interference case she brought against him. 

The development comes after Willis was permanently sidelined from prosecuting the case against Trump last September. She had lost an appeal after the Georgia Court of Appeals said Willis and her office could not continue to prosecute the case, citing an “appearance of impropriety” stemming from her romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade. The case was then dismissed in November. 

Georgia state legislators last year passed a law that says that if a prosecutor is disqualified from a case because of his or her own improper conduct and the case is then dismissed, anyone charged in that case is entitled to request “all reasonable attorney’s fees and costs incurred” in their defense. The judge overseeing the case then is responsible for reviewing the request and awarding the fees and costs, which are to be paid from the budget of the prosecutor’s office. 

“In accordance with Georgia law, President Trump has moved the Court to award reasonable attorney fees and costs incurred in his defense of the politically motivated, and now rightfully dismissed, case brought by disqualified DA Fani Willis,” Steve Sadow, Trump’s lead attorney in Georgia, said in a statement.

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A motion filed Wednesday said, “President Trump prays that this Court award attorney fees and costs for the defense of President Trump in the amount of $6,261,613,08.” 

Willis’ indictment had accused Trump of pressuring officials to overturn the 2020 vote in Georgia, organizing “fake electors” and harassing election workers. 

A Fulton County grand jury indicted Trump and 18 others in August 2023, and Trump surrendered at the Fulton County Jail on Aug. 24.

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Last month, when another person charged in the case made a similar filing, Willis’ office filed a motion asking to be heard on the matter of any claims for fees and costs filed in the case, according to The Associated Press. 

Willis’ motion raised concerns about the law passed last year that allowed Trump and others to seek to have their expenses paid. 

“The statute raises grave separation-of-powers concerns by purporting to impose financial liability on a constitutional officer, twice elected by the citizens of Fulton County, for the lawful exercise of her core duties under the Georgia Constitution,” her motion said.

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Her motion also added that the law violates due process by “retroactively imposing a novel fee-shifting scheme” that creates a substantial burden for the county’s taxpayers without any recourse. 

Fox News Digital’s Michael Dorgan and The Associated Press contributed to this report.