Banks County Sheriff’s Office Bloodhound Team Helps Locate 4 Suspects and Evidence in Only 15 Minutes

PRESS RELEASE – Corporal Josh Pressley and K9 Becka responded to a request to assist in locating 5 suspects who fled on foot after a stolen vehicle pursuit.

Cpl. Pressley used 4 separate Scent Kits at the scene to obtain scent articles from the vehicle.

The suspects were last spotted running into an overgrown field adjacent to the Interstate. Pressley and Becka began trailing through an open field, finding a red shoe lost by one of the fleeing suspects.

K9 Becka, a Scent Evidence K9 alumni, turned up an embankment into dense overgrowth where a path of laid-down vegetation was apparent.

The first offender was spotted lying in the overgrowth wearing one red shoe.

K9 Becka gave a positive alert by sitting. After the suspect was taken into custody, Cpl. Pressley and K9 Becka moved back toward the area where the other suspects had been seen entering the field.

The Georgia Bloodhound Team picked up the trail, crossed the field, and entered a wooded area.

K9 Becka continued through the briars and quickly located the second suspect who immediately surrendered and was taken into custody.

Pressley returned Becka to work and cast her into the open field. Becka, a scent discriminate Bloodhound, began pulling hard towards the edge of the field where the cover team spotted a third suspect just ahead of Becka hiding in a briar patch.

A fourth suspect was located 5 feet away in the briars. Becka continued working the edge of the field and located an orange glove that matched the gloves the other offenders had in their possession.

Perimeter officers then advised that one suspect had slipped through so the Bloodhound Team adjusted and began trailing through a business parking lot and a wooded area adjacent to the Interstate, reaching a fence.

Cpl. Pressley took K9 Becka around the fence where they continued trailing across the exit ramp and along the shoulder of the highway.

The trail was called due to safety concerns.

The trail to locate the suspects took only 15 minutes from the time of deployment. A short time later, officers learned that the fifth suspect was picked up on the Interstate and was being returned to the scene.

K9 Becka was rewarded for her amazing and fast trailing work! The perimeter established by Jefferson PD, Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, and Georgia State Police was instrumental in keeping the offenders in the area and allowing for the quick location of the suspects.

This is the 19th find for Cpl. Pressley and K9 Becka since completing their scent discriminate training with Scent Evidence K9.