Until they saw him on television running from police, then getting punched and kicked by three officers, family and friends of Jerome McCellion said they hadn’t seen him for weeks.

He had disappeared from his grandmother’s Delray Beach home in the last couple of months, they said. McCellion, 19, raised by his grandmother since he was a small boy, has been in and out of trouble with the law since he was 14.

Before he was accused of waving a gun at police and leading officers on a chase from Miami to south Broward County in a stolen sport utility vehicle Wednesday afternoon, McCellion was already a wanted man.

He had two active warrants out for his arrest in Palm Beach County. The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that the warrants for armed burglary, aggravated assault with a firearm, grand theft and failure to appear for determination of counsel were issued Aug. 24, but would not comment on circumstances surrounding the charges.

Several houses down from McCellion’s grandmother’s house in the 700 block of Southwest Eighth Court in Delray Beach, neighbors said they were angry about what they saw on television. They described McCellion as a friend who was trying to turn his life around after spending a couple of his teenage years in prison.

“He was trying to do good,” said Vanessa Burgess, 27. “He didn’t want to go back.”

Burgess and relatives said that McCellion would come over and talk about how he wanted to find a job, but that he never had any luck.

“It’s hard to get a job when you just get out of prison. You try and then you give up,” said Deloris Lewis, 24.

Reserving judgment about the crimes McCellion was accused of, the neighbors weighed in about seeing Miami-Dade officers punch and kick their friend in the head on television.

“I think it was so inhumane to do him like that,” said Burgess. “Everybody in their life might do something wrong. For them to beat him down and wrestle him up, that’s terrible.”

Down the street, family members were reluctant to talk on the advice of their lawyer, but did supply some of the details of McCellion’s life.

When he was young, his mother was ill and his father was involved in another relationship, so McCellion’s grandmother took him in, said his uncle, Dearil McCellion.

Jerome McCellion’s friends said he had never finished high school. At his Boynton Beach home, his father, also named Jerome McCellion, said his son’s mother had died when he was 16 years old.

He had not seen his son since the arrest warrants were put out, but was not anxious to see him on television and was avoiding the news.

“I don’t want to see the tape,” he said. He would not comment further.

In January 1996, the younger McCellion was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison for a March 1995 armed robbery. On Dec. 20, 1998, he was released early under community control, according to Palm Beach County’s probation department.

Nine days after his release, McCellion was arrested in Delray Beach for violating house arrest, said Valerie Rolle, probation administrator for the local office of the Department of Corrections.

After he was sentenced for the parole violation, McCellion was sent back to prison until Jan. 1 of this year. He had 13 days left of early-release supervision with the department, but never reported to a probation officer, Rolle said. A warrant should have been issued but was not, she said.

Two months ago in Palm Beach County, McCellion was charged with grand theft auto and carrying a concealed firearm. Records show McCellion was arrested at John Prince Park west of Lake Worth on July 6.

He was carrying a .38-caliber handgun and a BB gun, according to police reports. He also was charged in Palm Beach County on June 20 with loitering.

Tanya Weinberg can be reached at or 954-385-7923.