Tom GantertOrlando, FL – A Florida man who became famous after he broke up a fight dressed as an Easter bunny last year was wearing the costume again when he was arrested on Jan. 16.
Antoine McDonald, 21, wrecked his motorcycle into a carport in the 100-block of Dogwood Street in Altamonte Springs and damaged a vehicle parked inside it, the Orlando Sentinel reported.
A Seminole County sheriff’s deputy told the Florida Highway Patrol that McDonald drove through a stop sign and across someone’s yard before hitting the carport.
The carport collapsed onto the vehicle parked beneath it, and the motorcyclist hit a fence and flipped over, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
The police report said a neighbor witnessed McDonald limping across his yard.
McDonald didn’t appear to be home when deputies tried to find him at his residence, the Orlando Sentinel reported.
But then they saw a gray Nissan Rogue pulling out of his driveway and stopped it.
Deputies said McDonald’s cousin was driving the SUV while McDonald was hiding in the backseat wearing the Easter bunny costume, the Orlando Sentinel reported.
The report said that deputies noticed the “bunny appeared to be alive” and got McDonald out of the car.
He denied any involvement in the incident they were investigating, the Orlando Sentinel reported.
“I wasn’t in any crash. I’m the Orlando Easter bunny, Google it,” McDonald told the deputies.
They made the suspect remove his rabbit gear and then they arrested him, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
McDonald was taken to the hospital for leg and rib injuries he had from the motorcycle crash.
Then deputies booked him into the Seminole County Jail for leaving the scene of a crash involving property damage, driving with a suspended license, and operating a motorcycle without a license, the Orlando Sentinel reported.
McDonald was wearing the white rabbit costume on April 21, 2019 when his involvement in a fight outside of a bar was captured on cell phone video and went viral.
The cell phone video showed McDonald, dressed as the Easter bunny, rushing to help break up a fight between and man and woman on a sidewalk in front of an Orlando bar, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
As the video began, a woman was struggling to free her leg from the grasp of a man who was down on the sidewalk holding on to her.
The video showed her striking the man repeatedly in her attempt to break free, before he grabbed her and pulled her down to the sidewalk with him.
As this was happening, McDonald, wearing an Easter bunny costume, ran into the melee and began throwing punches with his huge, white, padded-costume paws.
The video showed the bunny wrapped his arms around the man’s waist and pulled him off of, and away from, the woman.
When the man refused to release the woman, the giant bunny started to pummel him. Then he tried to drag the man away from the woman again.
When that failed to work, the good Samaritan Easter bunny began hitting the man again in an effort to make him release the struggling woman.
At that point, another bystander approached the white rabbit as if to intervene, but that’s when police arrived on the scene.
The Easter bunny stepped back when police arrived and let the officer take over.
No arrests were made after the incident and the Easter bunny could have maintained his anonymity and remained a mystery, but instead, McDonald sought to publicize his newfound fame, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
McDonald created an Instagram account under the handle
The video of the Easter bunny intervening in a street fight quickly went viral.
But police said that despite McDonald’s good Samaritan moves on Easter, he has a very checkered criminal past and had a current warrant for a vehicle burglary in New Jersey when he donned the Easter bunny suit.
McDonald and an accomplice were caught on security video breaking into and vandalizing a car in South Brunswick, New Jersey in September of 2018, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
He was charged and a warrant for his arrest was issued, but he fled the state before he could be arrested.
South Brunswick Deputy Police Chief Jim Ryan said McDonald was also arrested in 2018 for spitting at a 7-Eleven employee and harassing a man on social media, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
Chief Ryan said McDonald was also implicated in a basketball court assault but that the incident had not resulted in an arrest.
“He’s got a lot of entries last year,” he said.
McDonald was arrested in Dover, Delaware in early 2017 after he and two other suspects allegedly committed two armed robberies in 12 hours on New Year’s Day, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
Police said that McDonald and his accomplices robbed three people at gunpoint, causing injury to two of them.
He was charged with two counts of robbery, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, second-degree conspiracy, and tampering with physical evidence, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
More recently, McDonald was busted in January of 2019 for using a fake ID to rent a U-Haul in Pasco County.
The Pasco County Sheriff’s Office was already looking at him for a recent carjacking and two armed robberies when he was arrested, but he has yet to be charged in connection with those crimes, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
In February of 2019, he was arrested by Orange County deputies for reckless driving.