CELEBRATION, Fla. — The Osceola County Sheriff’s Department reports that they arrested a man who fled a traffic stop, filed a false carjacking report and escaped from custody inside Celebration Hospital. Bradley Knirschild was taken into custody following negotiations in a hospital stairwell.
Knirschild was charged with seven offenses: escape, battery on an officer, damaging government property, false statement, probation violation, resisting arrest, and driving with a suspended license.
A DUI unit stopped a vehicle, but the driver fled on foot to an abandoned hotel. Deputies set a perimeter as K-nine and STAR units searched the building.
During the search, dispatchers received a call about a possible stabbing victim in the emergency room at Celebration Hospital.
Deputies arrived and identified the patient as the man who had fled a traffic stop. Knirschild gave a sworn statement claiming he was stabbed during a carjacking, but investigators found the report to be false.
The injuries he was receiving treatment for actually happened while he was fleeing from the DUI unit.
Deputies arrested Knirschild at the hospital. While being treated for his injuries, he managed to escape from the DUI unit’s custody. Knirschild fled the emergency room and ran into a hospital stairwell.
Responding deputies contained the suspect in the stairwell. The man then threatened to jump from the fifth staircase ledge. A deputy negotiated with him, and he was returned to custody.
Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
©2026 Cox Media Group
