Sheriff’s Office’s distribution of surveillance video images results in tips
Thanks to the posting of surveillance video images on social media last week, the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office received several tips that helped officers identify the suspect in an alleged armed burglary and aggravated assault incident, the department announced this week.
Taylor White-Best, 27, of 4988 Sabal Lake Circle, Sarasota, was taken into custody just after 5 p.m. on May 8, only hours after Kaitlyn R. Perez, community affairs director for the Sheriff’s Office, asked the news media for help in the case.
On April 22, just after midnight, “the victim [in the case] reported hearing a loud noise coming from her garage in the Volaris Live Oak Apartment complex,” located at 2509 Cattlemen Road in Sarasota, Perez’s May 8 news release said. When the victim opened the entry door to her garage, she discovered the suspect standing inside, holding a large knife, the news release added.
The arrest report noted that the fixed blade was described as 6 or 7 inches in length, and that the weapon was “dagger-like,” according to the victim.
The suspect warned the victim not to speak before he fled westbound into the parking lot, the news release continued.
The victim advised officers that the man “held the knife in a ‘threatening manner,’” which made her immediately fearful, so she hurried out of the garage and back to her apartment, the arrest report pointed out.
Deputies responded to the area to establish a perimeter and K-9 search; however, they were unsuccessful in locating the suspect, the May 8 news release said. Through their investigation, it noted, detectives recovered surveillance images, which showed the suspect looking under doormats, “possibly for keys to apartments.”
“According to the victim, the suspect spoke with an accent, possibly German or Eastern European,” the release added.
The arrest report for White-Best said the victim had not found any items missing from the garage. (The victim was not identified, as a result of a state law passed in 2019.)
“Numerous people contacted the Sheriff’s Office” after the surveillance images were posted on social media, the arrest report said. All of them “stated the pictured subject was known to them as Taylor Best,” the report added. After further investigation, the report noted, the suspect was identified as Taylor Michael White-Best.
Deputies found White-Best at his residence, the report added, but he “denied he did anything wrong.”
“Deputies were advised that the family was in the process of obtaining a lawyer,” the report noted.
Then deputies detained White-Best and transported him to the Sheriff’s Office, the report said.
Information provided through the Sheriff’s Office’s Corrections Division said White-Best is unemployed.
Bond was set at $5,000 on the felony count of Armed Burglary of a Dwelling Structure or Conveyance; another $5,000 in bond was set on the felony count of Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon without Intent to Kill.
The arraignment in the case was scheduled for June 19, the Corrections report noted.
