Black Man Shot by Lakeland Police Sentenced to Five Years

A 27-year-old Lakeland man shot by police earlier this year after a routine traffic stop went awry received a five-year prison sentence on charges stemming from the incident. Polk Circuit Judge Roger Alcott sentenced Michael Edwin Worlds on April 8 as a habitual traffic offender. Worlds pleaded guilty to aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, driving with a suspended license and fleeing to elude an officer. On Jan. 25, Lakeland police Officer Douglas Brown Jr. and other officers were clocking drivers with a radar gun in a construction zone on Kathleen Road, just south of Bella Vista Street. After being stopped for speeding, Worlds refused to pull over, according to a State Attorney's Office investigation. Worlds put his Ford Taurus in reverse, plowing through construction barrels. Worlds' car lunged at Brown, who fired two shots at the car. One bullet punched through the front driver's side windshield, the other through the driver's window. The investigation concluded that the shooting was justified. Worlds was wounded in the chest and went to Lakeland Regional Medical Center for treatment. [more]