MEMPHIS, Tenn.– Police chased down a wanted sex offender at a busy East Memphis shopping center after the man entered several stores and was reportedly harassing women.
45-year-old Anthony Fluker’s head is bandaged after he fell while trying to run from police at Park Place Centre Tuesday afternoon.
According to police, Fluker, who was wanted for kidnapping, aggravated rape and violation of the sex offender registry, refused to leave the shopping complex at Ridgeway and Park, and was reportedly harassing women in a few of the stores.
A woman who works at one of the stores Fluker entered didn’t want to be identified by told us he acted suspiciously. An employee at another store here said Fluker was getting “too close for comfort.”
“He was just inquiring about some services for somebody he may have known or a gift for a birthday, something of that nature,” she said.
Security was called and attempted to get Fluker to leave but he ran.
Members of a Memphis Police Task Force were at the shopping center working holiday surveillance and joined the foot chase.
Fluker reportedly resisted arrest several times even after officers deployed a chemical agent in his face. He slipped and fell causing his head injury.
“We heard all of the whole incident go down. We saw him on the ground and we saw the police mace him a couple of times. We saw them taking stuff out of his pocket, collecting evidence,” said one of the workers at the shopping center.
Police found a pair of brass knuckles Fluker said were “for his own protection.”
Tuesday’s incident has some workers at the shopping center taking extra precautions.
“We’re going to really watch everything, watch all of the surroundings. We’ve had a couple of crimes happen through here and it’s starting to get scary…honestly,” one of the workers said.
Anthony Fluker was charged with possessing a prohibited weapon, evading arrest on foot, and resisting official detention.
According to the Tennessee Sex Offender Registry, Fluker’s last known address was this house on Gaither Street but a neighbor told WREG she hadn’t seen the man there in several years.