A 26-year-old man who was about to be hauled off to jail bolted from a south Mississippi courtroom Thursday (June 28) but his dash for freedom was thwarted when he was run down from behind by a suit-and-tie clad George County circuit clerk who happened to be a triathlete, the Biloxi Sun-Herald reported.
John Samuel Bond, who was wanted on an outstanding warrant for a grand larceny charge, was in court in Lucedale when Judge Robert Krebs ordered him taken into custody, the newspaper reported. Bond asked the judge to let him kiss his wife before deputies took him away to jail and Krebs gave permission.
The suspect went into the courtroom audience and was about to hug his wife when he ran out the back door, according to the Sun-Herald's report. Deputies took off after Bond, as did County Circuit Clerk Chad Welford, who is in training for the Half Ironman in Atlanta.
After running more than a quarter of a mile in the late June heat, Bond tuckered out and ducked into some bushes. Welford stood nearby until officers caught up and arrested the suspect, the newspaper reported.
"I just ran behind him until he couldn't run anymore," Welford told the Sun-Herald. "He ran out of gas. It was pretty funny."
