The suspect is brought out of the woods, crying. pic.twitter.com/M4KK7r9j6f
— Rosana Hughes Rodríguez (@HughesRosana) October 4, 2018
Two suspects have been charged in connection to Thursday morning's East Ridge manhunt.
Police identified the suspect who fled the scene as Kinney Bass, 32, of Homestead, Florida. He's been charged with leaving the scene of a crash and evading arrest.
The second suspect, Rachel Millsaps, of Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, was a passenger and told police that her vehicle, a 2015 Dodge Journey, had been carjacked. She has been charged with making false reports after investigators determined a carjacking did not take place and all occupants in the vehicle knew each other.
Manhunt ends with suspect in custody.It was also reported that Bass was armed and dangerous, but East Ridge Police Chief James Reed said no weapons had been recovered, even after doing a sweep of the area where he was found. The failure in finding a weapon does not confirm the presence of a weapon either way, Reed added.
"When we first got there, we didn't want to take any chances, especially in that area," he said, explaining why police treated the suspect as being armed and dangerous.
What happened
Bass was driving with three other people in the vehicle when he began driving erratically, passengers told police. He then veered onto the left side of the road before crashing into a guard rail at 6600 Ringgold Road near Interstate 75. Some of the passengers sustained minor injuries as a result of the crash.
Despite earlier reports, a vehicle pursuit did not happen, Reed clarified. Catoosa County sheriff's deputies responded to the crash scene. That's when Bass fled the scene on foot and into the woods behind Life Care Center of East Ridge.
An official with Life Care Centers of America said the East Ridge facility was placed on lockdown as a precaution.
The three other passengers were detained and questioned to determine if they were in any danger.
Drones and K-9 units were brought in, and the search expanded into the wooded area between Camp Jordan and I-75. Reed said the search faced some challenges because of the heat and heavy rains from last week, which left the ground soggy and made it difficult to move through.
Officials finally located Bass in the woods about 700 yards from Camp Jordan's entrance, by the interstate near West Chickamauga Creek. They brought him out of the woods at around 12:06 p.m., covered in mud and crying.
It's not clear why he fled. Reed said the suspect may have been worried about outstanding warrants, but local police had not been able to confirm any warrants through Florida.
"He may have something at the local level in Florida that he thought was coming back to get him," Reed said, adding that it isn't a major felony because it would have showed up when police ran a search.
Three agencies were involved in Thursday's search, including Hamilton County Sheriff's Office, East Ridge Police and Catoosa County Sheriff's Office.
Contact staff writer Rosana Hughes at rhughes@timesfree press.com or 423- 757-6327 with tips or story ideas. Follow her on Twitter @HughesRosana.