North Jefferson News, Gardendale, AL

Local News

Discussion

Add a comment on this story
August 31, 2010

Deputies, police find Morris suspect in tree

By Melanie Patterson The North Jefferson News

GARDENDALE — Gardendale and county law enforcement officers teamed up this week to search for a suspect who ended up in the top of a tree.

Jeremy Dewayne Cole, 39, of Morris, was arrested on Wednesday at the 800 block of Lower Coalburg Road.

Deputies and police were searching for Cole because they “developed information that the subject was hiding in a trailer at this address and also that methamphetamine was being manufactured there,” according to Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Randy Christian.

He said deputies also arrested three other people who were found with Cole and who had outstanding warrants: James Price, Brad Beaubien and Diane Price.

As deputies were searching the woods around the trailer for Cole, they saw him lying on the ground on a hill watching the activity at the trailer. When he saw deputies, he ran into the brush and disappeared.

“Deputies set up a perimeter and called for a K-9 to assist,” Christian said in a press release.

Gardendale K-9 patrol officer Jimmy Unangst responded with his partner Kira, a Czech shepherd. Unangst teamed up with Sgt. Venita Edge, a patrol sergeant with the sheriff’s office.

“When we run the track, we have someone with us called a cover officer,” Unangst said. “When you’re tracking, you don’t just let the dog go and follow him.”

Unangst said when he and Kira are tracking, his eyes are on the dog 70 percent of the time and on his surroundings 30 percent of the time.

“I’ve got my hands full with a 90-pound dog,” Unangst said, adding that a K-9 patrol officer must completely trust the cover officer at his back.

Unangst has worked with Edge several times before.

Unangst said his dog started walking in circles trying to pick up the suspect’s trail when Edge spotted the suspect — about 25 feet up in an oak tree.

“I glanced up without making it obvious, and saw a foot,” Unangst said. He gave commands for Cole to come down from the tree. Cole climbed down and deputies arrested him without further incident.

“It was not just the dog,” Unangst said. “It was Sgt. Edge, too, being aware of her surroundings.”

Unangst said the dog was on the ground at 6:14 p.m., and the Cole was in custody at 6:31 p.m.

Cole was charged with two outstanding warrants: Receiving stolen property 1st, with a $10,000 bond, and receiving stolen property 3rd, with a $6,000 bond.

He was also charged with three new charges of receiving stolen property 1st, each with a $30,000 bond, and one attempting to elude, with a $6,000 bond.

Text Only
Local News