Details are still emerging about the arrest of a Florida sheriff’s deputy who had been wanted on a domestic rape charge while he was deployed in South Florida helping with security efforts at COVID-19 testing sites.
David Warren Ray, 39, was booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center over the weekend after a judge had issued an arrest warrant for him in Highlands County, where he serves as a sheriff’s deputy, according to the Miami Herald. Highlands County is about 100 miles south of Orlando.
Ray was arrested at the Provident Doral Hotel in Miami on Friday night by local police, according to a report obtained by the Herald.
The deputy had been deployed with the Florida National Guard since in South Florida since January to help with COVID-19 response efforts, according to the Department of Military Affairs. Ray, a sergeant first class with the Army’s 116th Field Artillery Regiment, had been on hand to help run the walk-up vaccination site at Miami-Dade College’s North Campus. His deployment was slated to end this month.
The National Guard has deployed hundreds of guards to areas of South Florida and other parts of the state to assist with the massive response to COVID-19. Some of those officers have also had stints in Tallahassee and Washington D.C. for security related to political unrest and the presidential inauguration, according to local news station Miami CBS Local.
A spokesman for the Highlands County Sheriff’s department said it would release details about the allegations and the investigation soon.
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