Habersham Co. Manhunt ends in Arrest

Teamwork from almost every law enforcement agency in Habersham County led to the arrest of the man accused of driving a stolen car early Thursday. Around 4am, an on-duty Baldwin police officer alerted the Habersham County Sheriff’s Office that a vehicle traveling in the unincorporated portion of the county was returning stolen from DeKalb County. Habersham County Sheriff’s Cpl. Adam Ivester performed a traffic stop on the vehicle on Ga. 365 at Demorest-Mt. Airy Highway. “At which point, the driver bailed out of the car and fled on foot,” Ivester said. That individual was described as a black male wearing blue jeans and a white tank top. That set into motion a nearly four-hour manhunt in the Demorest and Cornelia areas. A search perimeter was established by sheriff’s deputies and local police departments, and a Banks County Sheriff’s Office K-9 team and Georgia State Patrol Aviation assisted with the search. Just before 8am, an individual at Hampton Inn reported seeing the man hiding behind a tree in the woods near that establishment so officers saturated that area and took the man into custody between Hampton Inn and McGahee-Griffin & Stewart Funeral Home. The man, who refused to give his name, will be charged with theft by receiving stolen vehicle, obstruction for running, and concealing a tag. “He used duct tape to cover the numbers,” Ivester said. Demorest Elementary School and Wilbanks Middle School on Demorest-Mt. Airy Highway were checked and cleared by officers prior to the school day to ensure no one was on campus or had broken in following the traffic stop, and school resource officers and administrators kept a close watch to ensure the safety of students, staff, and parents. Deputies had no information to indicate the individual who fled was armed or posed a danger to the public, and a K-9 team had tracked the individual to the area of the Highway 385 exit in Cornelia, so officers were confident he was not in the area of the schools by the time students began to arrive. A social media post alerting the public to the ongoing manhunt turned up several tips, but it was the call from Hampton Inn that led officers to the individual. Officers from Baldwin, Clarkesville, Cornelia, Demorest, and Tallulah Falls police departments assisted in the search, along with Banks County Sheriff’s Office and Georgia State Patrol Aviation. “We want to thank all these other agencies for helping bring this search to a close the best way possible – the arrest of the person we were looking for,” said Sheriff Joey Terrell. At the time of this release, the man continued to refuse to give his name to officers at the detention center.