A car parked illegally in a handicapped parking spot at a local motel led to the arrest of a man who was wanted in Georgia for escaping a prison work detail.
According to a police report, on Friday morning Officer Lexie Whitenburg was patrolling the parking lot of the Motel 6 on Ringgold Road when she spotted a Hyundai Sonata backed into a handicapped parking spot. The car had no handicap placard and the officer ran that registration on the plate. The report states that the plate returned as stolen in an auto burglary from Chattanooga. Police then ran the VIN number of the car which returned as stolen out of Del Ray Beach, Florida.
The report states that police went to the room of the person who registered giving information on the car to the motel clerk. The room was registered to a woman and she was the sole occupant. The report states that when police knocked on the motel room door, a woman peeked out of the curtains and then the door was answered by a man. According to the report, police asked for the man to step outside of the room and when he did he took off running.
The report states that officers ordered the man to stop, but he refused. The man was tased in the parking lot but police continued to struggle with the man to take him into custody. The keys to the stolen vehicle were found in the man’s front pocket.
According to the report, the man gave a false name to police initially. He was later identified as Bryan Duke, 49, of a Wildwood, Georgia address, and was found to have multiple active warrants for his arrest in Florida and Georgia. In Georgia, the report states, Duke was wanted for escape from a work detail, where he was serving an 11-year prison sentence.
The report states that a second set of car keys were found in Duke’s possession, along with paperwork belonging to a white 2008 PT Cruiser. This vehicle was reported stolen in Red Bank during a residential burglary in which two rifles were stolen. The PT Cruiser has not been recovered and Duke refused to speak with investigators in regard to this incident.
The report states that the woman in the motel room told police that Duke picked her up in Chattanooga and drove to the motel.
Duke was taken to Erlanger Hospital to be checked out before being taken to the Hamilton County Jail and charged with Theft over $1,000.
_ 206 Frawley Rd.: Police were dispatched to the address, last week, in regard to a burglary. According to a police report, when police arrived they spoke with the victim who said that someone had broke the rear kitchen window and entered his home. The house had been ransacked and the curtains to several windows had been pushed aside or removed. The report states that the victim told officers that his dresser drawers and closets in both bedrooms had been opened. The victim said his compound bow and several arrows were taken, as well as an unknown amount of collectible sports trading cards and seven cans of Keystone Light beer from the refrigerator. The report states that police noticed smears of blood on a downstairs wall and a possibly bloody print on the rear sliding glass door. Police also located a hammer and pry bar outside the kitchen window on the rear deck, which the victim claimed did not belong to him. Investigators responded to the incident to collect evidence and document the scene.
