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PHOTO/METRO
A Kissimmee man was arrested on Saturday after he shined a laser pointer into a Florida Highway Patrol aircraft.
Guillermo Negron Roque, 47, was charged with pointing a laser light at a driver or pilot.
According to a Florida Highway Patrol report, the FHP pilot J.C. Pollack was flying a plane to Orlando Executive Airport at about 6:35 a.m. just west of Interstate 4. As he approached the airport to land, the aircraft suddenly became fully illuminated by the color green.
“At first I thought I was about to have a mid-air collision with another aircraft and the color green I was seeing was a navigational light from another aircraft,” Pollock wrote in the report. “The flash of green light was so bright that I temporarily experienced blindness.”
After he regained his vision after a few seconds, Pollack looked out the left side of the plane and could see a district green trail coming from a laser pointer from the ground.
About 20 seconds later, the laser pointer shined into the cockpit again, Pollack stated, and it gave him enough time to see that it was coming from a construction site across from the Dr. Phillips Academic Commons.
Pollack landed the plane and drove his patrol vehicle to the construction site. When he got to the construction site, 499 W. Livingston St., Orlando, Pollack made contact with a site superintendent and asked if anyone had a laser pointer. He said he did see someone, but didn’t know who it was. At that point, a large group of workers were called over and were questioned about the laser pointer, but none admitted to having one.
Pollack returned to the site at about 9:55 a.m. with two other troopers, and two supervisors at the site said they had an idea who it was. Roque then came forward. When asked about the laser pointer, Roque said he uses one to help pinpoint locations at the construction site. He retrieved it and Pollack could see that it was green. Roque said he saw the plane was flying low and that it flew into the path of the laser.
But when the laser hit the plane the second time, Roque would have to have aimed it 180 degrees in the opposite direction, Pollack stated.
He was then taken to the Orange County Jail.
