Suspicious person with warrant still at large

By Kelly Terpstra, kterpstra@charlescitypress.com

The Charles City Police Department was alerted about a suspicious person who was potentially armed with a shotgun or possibly wielding a baseball bat Friday evening just after 6:45 p.m. in the 600 block of 11th Street, near the Floyd County Medical Center.

After further investigation it became clear that there was no danger to the public and the person was not carrying a firearm, police say.

“What we got through our investigation is they weren’t armed with a gun. As far as a bat, I don’t have any info on that,” said Charles City Police Captain Brandon Franke. “After looking more into the situation that evening we realized there wasn’t any public safety threat like we thought there could have been in the beginning.”

There was a large police presence in the area searching for the person, but he was unable to be apprehended. The search encompassed a cornfield south of 11th Street and it was later determined he jumped out of a window of Lantern Park Apartments at 600 11th Street before officers could talk to him, Franke said. The search was called off after about two hours.

Franke would not release the name of the suspect and he said there are no current charges that have been brought about as a result of the search. Franke said he believes the person ran from law enforcement because of a minor arrest warrant.

“It was just more of a person that didn’t want to get caught by us,” said Franke. “I honestly don’t even know if we’re 100 percent sure of who they said it was. I’m not going to release anything like that at this time just because I don’t know.”