OAK RIDGE, Tenn. — An Anderson County K9 tracked down a wanted man Sunday in a local church.
According to a post on the Anderson County Sheriff's Facebook page, a man wanted in Ohio and considered armed and dangerous ran after a traffic stop in Oak Ridge just after 11 a.m.
The man ran into the First United Methodist Church of Oak Ridge. Several services were scheduled at that time, so officers evacuated the church so they could search for the suspect.
Enter K9 Baron and his handler, Sgt. Jon Acker.
The church is large, with lots of rooms and plenty of places to hide, so Baron put his trusty nose to work to sniff out the wanted man, searching room by room.
After a couple of hours, the dog alerted at a closet door inside a bathroom. When the door was opened, the suspect was inside and surrendered immediately.
“I am very grateful to be working this dog and blessed to have some awesome people working with us and who have helped us along the way” stated Sgt. Acker.
“Today was a great example of the exceptional professionals we have working in law enforcement. The team at ORPD was phenomenal today and worked great with our agency in finding this wanted individual. The staff at First United Methodist was instrumental in this as well. Job well done by everyone” concluded Sheriff Russel Barker.