Police are still searching for the man who ran from the Corrections Department Probation Office in Clarkesville on Wednesday afternoon.
30-year-old Jatari Rashed Hunter, pictured above in a mug shot from the Athens-Clarke County Police Department, fled from the office on Highway 115 around noon. Clarkesville Police Chief Brad Barrett says Hunter was being sent to jail for violating the terms of his probation. He was waiting, unrestrained, for a police officer to arrive to take him into custody when he fled.
Barrett says Hunter apparently got into a car with the driver who brought him to the office. They headed west on Highway 115 and drove a short distance. Officials believe Hunter jumped out of the car and ran away on foot in the vicinity of the Westside BP gas station.
Clarkesville Police and Habersham County Sheriff’s deputies searched the area with K-9s.
Clarkesville Elementary School, which is located less than a mile from the gas station, was put on soft lockdown as a precaution. Students were kept indoors and a School Resource Officer was posted outside the school
“There was no threat to the school,” reassures Habersham County School Superintendent Matthew Cooper. “We place a school on a soft lockdown anytime there is law enforcement activity in the vicinity.”
Chief Barrett says the students were not in any danger.
Arrest records show Hunter, who’s from Athens, was arrested by Athens-Clarke County Police on September 26 on three felony theft by shoplifting charges. He was out of jail on bond when he fled.
Police are asking for the public’s help to find him. He’s a black male, 6′ tall, and weighs 190 pounds. Hunter has tattoos on both arms and was last seen wearing black shorts and a black shirt. If you see him or know where he is, call 911.
