Feb. 15 (UPI) — Search and rescue crews pulled the patrol vehicle of a Tennessee police deputy from the Tennessee River following an arrest made by the officer yesterday, authorities announced Thursday.
The body of an apparent arrestee was in the back seat. A search for the deputy remains ongoing.
“We always hope that it’s a rescue , so we always hold out that hope. But we also have to face the facts that are in front of us,” Hamilton County Sheriff Austin Garrett said at a press briefing Thursday afternoon. “We won’t lose hope that we could still recover him.”
Meigs County Deputy Robert “R.J.” Leonard, a rookie on the force, responded to a report of a man and woman fighting on a bridge shortly before 10 p.m. local time Wednesday and took the woman into custody, according to Meigs County District Attorney Russell Johnson.
Leonard was driving to the county jail when the sheriff’s office lost communication with him and he failed to respond to a status check, Johnson said.
One of Leonard’s last communications was a text to his wife that said, “Arrest,” according to Johnson.