Felony Suspect In Custody After Standoff On Highway 97

July 1, 2024

A felony suspect was taken into custody just after 8 p.m. Sunday after an hours-long standoff with the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office in Walnut Hill.

John Edward McDowell, 48, was taken into custody after the four to five hour standoff. He eventually exited the home and was arrested without incident on Alabama warrants, including violation of probation and two warrants for failure to appear. He was booked into the Escambia County (FL) Jail in Pensacola to await extradition back to Alabama and charged with interfering with the custody of a minor..

The ECSO said they received a tip that the man was at a residence on Highway 97 north of Wiggins Lake Road. Deputies responded to serve the warrant, but the ECSO said he refused to exit the home.

Deputies said they knocked and announced their presence on a public address system, but he never responded.

Dozens of ECSO units responded, along with their SWAT team and negotiators. A spokesperson said no shots were fired during the standoff.

During the incident, the sheriff’s office closed Highway 97 and detoured traffic onto Highway 99A (at Ernest Ward Middle School) to the south of the scene and Highway 164 to the north.

Comments

3 Responses to “Felony Suspect In Custody After Standoff On Highway 97”

  1. Laura Cook on July 1st, 2024 4:31 pm

    Thanks Law Enforcement. This was a very scary incident that thanks to you it was taken care of. I thank God for you people who help keep us safe.

  2. Sherry Taylor on June 30th, 2024 9:50 pm

    We were coming down 97 toward Hwy 29 around 3:00 and saw 4 police cars at a residence. Then 8 police cars were racing that way. We wondered what was happening. Hope everything worked out.

  3. Tina Boone on June 30th, 2024 7:24 pm

    They’re still deterred traffic we just now got back on the highway 97 so the cops are still there to detour traffic at522 p.m.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News