Clearwater police arrest suspect after an exchange of gunfire on the Pinellas trail

CLEARWATER — A Saturday night shootout between Clearwater police and a 48-year-old ex-convict erupted on the Pinellas Trail about 10 p.m., causing no injuries.

Officers responded to 608 Eldridge St. about 9:45 p.m. after Wilson Geathers Jr. began firing a gun into the air following an argument with his girlfriend, police said.

Geathers had fled to the nearby trail with the gun, which he told police he bought for $20 from a coworker. When an officer approached him, he retrieved the gun from his back pocket and pointed it at police. An officer shot at Geathers, who returned fire.

Several shots were exchanged before Geathers was arrested on the 700 block of Maple Street and charged with attempted murder on a law enforcement officer, possessing a firearm as a felon and possessing cocaine. Officers wrote in an arrest report that he had a plastic tube of cocaine on him at the time of the arrest.

Geathers was convicted of possessing cocaine in June. Starting in 2002, he spent about a year at the Bay Correctional Facility in the Florida panhandle for an aggravated assault in 1990. Jail records show a warrant for Geathers' arrest was filed in Alachua County after he failed to pay child support.

Drew Harwell can be reached at dharwell@sptimes.com