February 22, 2016 - Law enforcement officials received word of a man armed with a rifle riding a bicycle on Highway 59 north of Timpson on Monday, February 22, 2016.
According to a press release issued by the Timpson Police Department, at approximately 11:20 a.m. today Chief Kent Graham was notified of a male subject riding a bicycle on U.S. Highway 59 coming into Timpson armed with an assault rifle. The suspect ran into a residence on Highway 59 that was being worked on. Upon Chief Graham making contact with him, the suspect fled and a call for assistance was answered by Constable Stanley Burgay, Deputy Kurtes Lawrence, and Timpson ISD Chief of Police Kimberly Graham.
The school (Timpson ISD) was notified and it was placed on lock down as a precaution. Approximately 20 minutes later, Chief Kimberly Graham observed the suspect in front of the Middle School and made contact with him. Another foot pursuit ensued and the suspect was taken into custody by Chief Kimberly Graham, Officer Jacob Metcalf with the Timpson Police Department, and Chief Kent Graham, after the suspect had broken into another home in an attempt to flee from Law Enforcement again.
It was determined that the suspect had been armed with a 30-06 rifle, and a .22 caliber rifle which had been taken in a burglary from a residence earlier in the day. Chief Graham would like to thank all Officers involved for their help in apprehending this suspect without any Officers being injured.
Chief Graham later confirmed for Shelby County Today, the man had dropped the rifles when he first fled and was unarmed from that point forward, as well as on school grounds. Although the man had dropped the weapons, it was unknown to law enforcement if he remained armed with any other weapons and he was treated as an armed suspect until it could be confirmed he no longer was.
