Peachtree City Police capture potential felons, manhunt in Santolina Park subdivision

After a manhunt involving K9 units, a drone, and tips from the public, Peachtree City Police captured a suspect who had fled a traffic stop on New Year’s Day, and put him and his passenger under arrest with felony charges.

A patrol officer was conducting routine traffic enforcement on Highway 74 and Kedron Drive in Peachtree City at about 6 p.m. He spotted a car with a used dealership tag. According to Public Information Officer Lt. Chris Hyatt, “We’ve found this is common and popular for the criminal element to use. He noticed that the vehicle had a brake light out, so he initiated a traffic defective equipment violation.”

The officer’s suspicion was raised even higher when he detected a strong odor of marijuana from the vehicle. He had the male driver, Tyrese Jehvon Bullard, 25, of Jonesboro, and the female passenger, Sharice Michelle Ingram, 25, of Atlanta exit the vehicle with their baby, as is standard protocol. By then, the PTC officer had called for backup.

The officer explained to the couple how the probable cause search would be conducted on their belongings. Lt. Hyatt explained, “The female becomes very uncooperative about some of the contents of her personal effects. She is drawing an awful lot of attention to not wanting officers dealing with one of her personal bags. It is placed on the trunk of their vehicle and as we’re separating her from the item, the male subject suddenly reaches for it and takes off running.

“At the same time, the officer actually saw the handle or magazine portion of a pistol protruding from the purse.”

Tyrese Bullard takes off running up the highway with a pistol. The officer gives chase. Soon, Bullard drops the bag, and shortly after the firearm in the median of the highway. Then, he takes off into the wood line.

By then, more PTCPD units had arrived on scene. They were able to secure the female passenger, who eventually got her mother to come and get the baby out of custody.

They set up a large perimeter to catch Bullard who had taken flight from the traffic stop. Two K9 units were started right away, K9 Ejmyr and K9 Jonny. One was already on duty, another was coming on shift, so both were engaged. They were tracking into the Santolina Park subdivision off Kedron.

During this time, the firearm dropped in the median by the suspect was run through GCIC (Georgia Crime Information Center, the database run by the state.) “Turns out the firearm is stolen out of Henry County. So we already have charges on the female, and obviously this is just adding to the laundry list of charges for the male subject,” said Lt. Hyatt. Possessing stolen property is a felony.

At this point, the police department also turned to social media, so that they could get tips coming in. And tips came. Some of them led police in errant directions. But some of their officers were still on the right track, especially their officer commanding their drone, equipped with FLIR, forward looking infrared. This is the same drone that has been engaged in other manhunts recently for missing people, as it can detect the heat signature of a person.

And it found one, a heat signature at the back of a home in Santolina Park. Lt Hyatt explained, “The drone dropped down to get a better look and basically spooked the guy up into running. The homeowner called and said, ‘Hey, I’ve got a lot of noise in my backyard, and somebody just took off running down the side of my house.’ That was us chasing him out with the drone.”

What Bullard didn’t know is that the drone was tracking and chasing him right into the hands of the line of searching police officers. “The moment that the K9 officer began to give him commands, he dropped immediately to his stomach right there in the middle of the roadway and gave up without incident or use of force.”

Even on a cold, dark night, the suspect couldn’t evade the Peachtree City Police.

Ms Cherise Ingram is being charged with misdemeanor obstruction as well as theft by receiving stolen property for being in possession of a stolen firearm. Mr. Tyrese Bullard is being charged with misdemeanor obstruction, fleeing, attempting to elude and theft by receiving stolen property as well for being in possession of the same stolen firearm out of Henry County. Bullard and Ingram were both taken to the Fayette County Sheriff’s Department Jail.

You might be wondering about what happened to the drug charge, as marijuana was smelled when they exited the vehicle. Mr. Bullard’s pants were found back in the woods where he fled. It is thought that he dropped drugs before he discarded his pants, but that is not confirmed.

In order to effectively conduct a search like this, Lt Chris Hyatt credits the fact that the police department was able to pull in the night shift early, keep the day shift working, and that they had full resources with their drone pilot and K9 units.