The Standard spoke with Sheriff Frankie Gray, Monday morning, about the man who ran from police after a traffic stop near the North Stewart Veterinary Clinic on Hwy 79 last week. The Standard received an email from Media Relations Coordinator, Paulette Redman, Sat. morning, April 11, stating, “The subject the Sheriff’s Office has been searching for since Wed. morning has been caught! This morning at about 5:15, the Sheriff’s Office received a call from a citizen about a suspicious subject in the area of the Dollar General and Guadalajara Restaurant at Keel Hollow. Corporal Bolden responded and observed the subject in the parking lot. The subject attempted to flee, and after a short foot chase, Cpl. Bolden was able to grab the subject during a struggle that began with the suspect being tased.” Apparently he made it across the river to the West Side of Stewart Co.
The original post on the Sheriff’s Facebook page last Wed., April 8, stated, the sheriff’s office was looking for a male subject from Venezuela, in his late 30’s wearing a red Raven Wood t-shirt and jeans. During a traffic stop he was the passenger in the vehicle and took off on foot, running across Hwy. 79 in the area where the Longhorn and goats are located, across the street from North Stewart Vet Clinic. He is wanted on drug charges by the SC Sheriff’s Office and also wanted by ICE.” Someone claiming to know the subject said he was from Honduras. There was a large police presence at the scene last week. According to the booking log, one Saul Airevalo had two charges of evading arrest and resisting arrest. He was listed as 49 years old. The driver, Josbel Colmenures, listed as 23 years old, was arrested last Wed., and charged with driving without a license and the “slow poke law.” Neither had a drug charge and according to Gray, they are both being held on an Immigrations and Custom Enforcement (ICE) detainer.
We asked Gray about the picture first put out of the suspect who fled. He said it was taken from dash cam video and he was standing outside the vehicle before he ran. Gray said the officer who pulled the car over was suspicious and a dog hit on the vehicle like there were drugs in the car. They got them out of the vehicle. Gray told the Standard, “While he was getting them out and letting them come around back, the passenger took off across the lane of traffic there. As there was some traffic coming, some of the officers had to wait, they couldn.t just run, so he had a little bit of a head start on them.” Gray said all the animals in the yard across the street confused the dog and they lost track of him then. According to Gray, they didn’t know his identity. He said they did face recognition with TBI and determined the driver was here illegally and ICE wanted him. “About the only thing we could get out of the driver was that this guy was here illegally, he wouldn.t tell us no names or anything like that. We finally got his fingerprints and ran them and he came back with a name and everything.” We asked about the first post which went out stating the suspect who fled was wanted by ICE, Gray said, “Well, they were basing that on what the driver said that he was here illegal. The driver was the only one they could confirm was wanted by ICE.
Gray also said, they didn.t find any drugs in the car, so they felt like the one who ran had them on him because the dogs did give a positive. We asked if Gray knew how he got across the bridge, he said, “I’m going to try to talk to him today and see if he.ll tell me. But you know, if he crossed it late at night, two or three o.clock in the morning, you could do that, I think and, you know, you could skirt the guardrails and stuff until you got to the bridge. At 3am, there.s not hardly any traffic, he definitely wasn. t wet, though.” Gray said they were from the Nashville area and driving through Stewart Co. to work somewhere. He said, “They looked like they were painters, sheet rockers, something like that.” They had an ICE detainer for the driver already and just got one Sunday for the guy that ran. Gray added, “I support ICE, we’ll assist them like we do any other law enforcement agency, but we don’t operate under their policies and procedures on how they do things.”…