POLK COUNTY, Fla. – A Lakeland man is behind bars after a midnight argument over a flashlight quickly escalated into violence and led deputies to a hidden stash of heavy drugs.
Polk County Sheriff’s deputies rushed to a home on McLeod Road in Lakeland around 1:30 in the morning on Thursday, May 21, 2026. They got a call about a battery, which means someone was physically attacked.
When deputies got to the scene, they learned that an argument had broken out because people were fighting over who owned a flashlight. Things got violent fast. Two victims explained to the deputies exactly what happened. They said that 37-year-old Rashad Battles grabbed a flashlight right out of a woman’s hands. When she told him to give it back, Battles allegedly grabbed her by the throat and began choking her…