When a 24-year-old man ran inside a relative’s apartment, DeKalb County police thought they finally had the suspect accused in a violent armed robbery. William Jalvon McLeod also allegedly threatened police in Facebook posts.
But when a SWAT team fired tear gas and entered the Avondale Forest apartment, McLeod was gone, police said Wednesday. He remained on the loose late Wednesday.
“At some point, he managed to evade us,” Maj. S.R. Fore told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
In September, McLeod allegedly robbed a man at gunpoint, then held the man to the ground and repeatedly kicked him in the head, Fore said. When investigators identified McLeod as the suspect, a warrant was issued for his arrest. McLeod was also wanted for allegedly threatening police officers on Facebook, where pictures showed him holding an AR-15 assault rifle and a handgun, Fore said.
“In this day and time, we take that very seriously,” Fore said.
Uniformed officers spotted McLeod late Tuesday at the apartment complex, off Mountain Drive near Decatur. When McLeod went into an apartment, officers attempted to apprehend him, Fore said. But inside the home were four children, and officers’ first priority was to remove the children, he said.
“They put themselves in harm’s way to remove those children from harm’s way,” Fore said.
Officers carried out three children, and the fourth walked out on his own. A woman inside the apartment, believed to be McLeod’s sister, was also evacuated. A SWAT team was then called to the apartment and a search warrant was secured, Fore said.
SWAT officers attempted to make contact with McLeod, who didn’t respond. Tear gas was then deployed through windows of the apartment, and officers entered and searched the apartment, Fore said. McLeod was not located.
It was the second time in five days that metro Atlanta SWAT teams entered a home without finding their suspect.
Friday night, a Loganville man allegedly barricaded himself inside his home with his infant son, according to Gwinnett County police. A woman told police the father of her child, Keandre Davis, had a gun and had made threats to hurt himself and their child after a dispute, Cpl. Collin Flynn said.
Officers attempted unsuccessfully to make contact with Davis and the SWAT team was activated, Flynn said. Neither Davis nor the child were inside the home, and a family friend later returned to the home with the child, who was injured. Davis remained on the loose until Tuesday afternoon, when he was arrested and charged with two counts of simple battery, Gwinnett jail records showed.
In the DeKalb incident, investigators had not yet determined how McLeod was able to leave the apartment. Pictures of the apartment showed broken glass and holes in walls, and resident Terri Miller told Channel 2 Action News her home was destroyed by officers.
McLeod’s criminal history includes a felony conviction for burglary in June 2011, when he was sentenced to probation, DeKalb court records show.
Anyone with information on McLeod’s whereabouts is asked to contact DeKalb police.
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