Man charged with threatening mother with knife, deputies say

SPRING HILL — A 24-year-old Spring Hill man with a history of burglary arrests is accused of threatening his mother with a knife on Wednesday, as she tried to get him money from a check-cashing business, a Hernando County Sheriff’s Office report said.

Around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, sheriff’s records show that Derek Lee O’Brien, of 5188 Elwood Road, also used a knife in a robbery attempt at Family Dollar, 7419 Spring Hill Drive.

O’Brien’s mother told a deputy that she took her son to the check-cashing business because he has a violent history and was afraid of what he might do if she did not give him rent money.

When the woman had problems getting money, O’Brien pulled a knife and threatened to slash her tires, an arrest report said.

O’Brien eventually fled the scene, but was later seen sitting on the tailgate of a pickup outside Family Dollar, records said. He attempted to flee on a bicycle when a sheriff’s deputy arrived, but he crashed and ran off, records said.

O’Brien was eventually arrested in front of 1395 Meadow Lark Road, records said. He was charged with robbery with a weapon and resisting an officer without violence. He was being held at the Hernando County jail on Thursday with bail set at $26,000, records show.

O’Brien is not unknown to Hernando law enforcement, as he was arrested on multiple burglary charges two years ago, sheriff’s records show.

In 2009, O’Brien, then 19, was arrested and charged with multiple burglary charges in relation to a string of vehicle break-ins.