The man charged after today’s manhunt in the Demorest and Cornelia area has been identified as Marvin Scott, 45, of Gainesville.
The Habersham County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) charged Scott with theft by receiving a stolen vehicle, obstruction of an officer, having an obscured or missing license plate, and driving on a suspended or revoked license.
Scott was the subject of an hours-long manhunt after he fled on foot from a traffic stop on GA 365 at Demorest-Mt. Airy Highway. He eluded officers for four hours before deputies captured him in a wooded area between the Hampton Inn and McGahee Griffin & Stewart Funeral Home near GA 365 in Cornelia.
Law enforcement officers saturated the area just before 8 a.m. Thursday, after someone at the hotel reported seeing the suspect hiding behind a tree. Deputies took Scott into custody shortly after.
Car flagged as stolen
The incident started around 4 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 9, when an on-duty Baldwin police officer alerted the sheriff’s office to a stolen vehicle traveling in the unincorporated part of the county. The vehicle was reported stolen from DeKalb County.
When HCSO Cpl. Adam Ivester stopped the vehicle, he says the driver, later identified as Scott, “bailed out of the car and fled on foot.”
Deputies set up a search perimeter. Officers from several local police departments, the Banks County Sheriff’s Office K-9 team, and the Georgia State Patrol Aviation Unit helped search for the suspect.
Initially, Scott refused to give his name to the police. He was charged with having an obscured tag because “He used duct tape to cover the numbers,” says Ivester.
“A partial tag and the vehicle description were enough to trigger that the vehicle matched one stolen in DeKalb County, prompting the traffic stop to investigate further,” explains Habersham County Public Information Officer Rob Moore.
Schools put on alert
Due to their proximity to where Scott fled, officers checked and cleared Demorest Elementary and Wilbanks Middle schools before they opened. They made sure he was not on campus and had not broken into any buildings.
School resource officers and administrators kept a close watch until he was captured to ensure student, staff, and parent safety, says Moore.
“Deputies had no information to indicate the individual who fled was armed or posed a danger to the public, and a K-9 team had tracked the individual to the area of the Highway 385 exit in Cornelia, so officers were confident he was not in the area of the schools by the time students began to arrive,” he adds.
A social media post alerting the public to the ongoing manhunt turned up several tips, but it was the call from Hampton Inn that led officers to Scott.
In addition to the Georgia State Patrol and Banks County Sheriff’s Office, police from Baldwin, Clarkesville, Cornelia, Demorest, and Tallulah Falls assisted in the manhunt.
“We want to thank all these other agencies for helping bring this search to a close the best way possible – the arrest of the person we were looking for,” says Habersham County Sheriff Joey Terrell.
Second manhunt this week
Thursday’s manhunt is the second in Habersham County this week.
On Monday, Nov. 6, law officers arrested a fugitive from Athens after a daylong search near the Tom Arrendale Interchange east of Clarkesville. Rahim Abdullah fled on foot after wrecking his car on GA 365 during a pursuit with a state trooper.
On Wednesday, Nov. 8, Habersham authorities released Abdullah to the custody of the Clarke County Sheriff’s Office on outstanding warrants for robbery and battery under the Family Violence Act, among other charges. He was booked at the Clarke County Jail.
