Dozens of law officers descended on a DeKalb County neighborhood before daybreak Thursday when a fugitive being chased jumped into a lake.
DeKalb fire Assistant Chief Steve Ham told the AJC that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were trying to apprehend a fugitive and had the wanted man surrounded in a house in a neighborhood off Flakes Mill Road in south DeKalb.
"He came out and broke through their cordon and into the lake off Lehigh Boulevard," Ham said. "They called us because they were worried that he might drown."
Ham said 30 to 40 DeKalb police officers, sheriff's deputies and ICE agents then surrounded Lehigh Lake, with some going in after the suspect.
"The lake is typical of a lot of lakes in this area; you have about two or three feet of water and about four feet of mud, so it wasn't much swimming involved, it was more wading and wallowing about in the water," Ham said.
"He was able to elude police for a good time because he was uncooperative and he resisted arrest," Ham said. He said officers eventually Tased the man, subdued him and brought him to shore.
The suspect was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital, but didn't appear to be badly injured, Ham said. He said one of the officers also suffered a leg injury during the pursuit.
Ham said the suspect, whose name has not been released, "had already been deported once on a drug charge, and he came back into the country and apparently threatened a female. They came close to catching him on Friday, but they missed him, and they got him this morning."
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