A Macon County man was charged with attempted murder after a tense standoff with law enforcement officers on the night of Thursday, Oct. 29.
The suspect, Ryan Emerson Spears, is being held at the Macon County Detention Center under a $1.5 million bond.
The suspect’s first encounter with law enforcement occurred at about 1 p.m. on the same day when Macon County Sheriff’s deputies responded to reports of someone driving erratically on US 441 in the southern end of the county.
“By the time we got there, the person had sideswiped a couple of vehicles,” said Macon County sheriff Robert Holland.
The suspect got out of his vehicle and went after one of the sideswipe victims “in a very aggressive manner,” Holland said. “A witness had stopped to check on the individual who had been wrecked. He pulled an Airsoft replica pistol on the suspect, hoping he would think it was a real gun, but the suspect kept approaching.
“One of our detectives got the situation calmed down, and the Highway Patrol responded and charged him with driving while impaired,” Holland said. “He went before the magistrate and was charged with DWI and other citations, and then released.”
Officers encountered the suspect that same night.
“Later on that evening we had a domestic situation in the Skeenah area, which turned out to be the same suspect,” Holland said. “He had fired multiple rounds from a shotgun at victims in the residence.
“We responded, and he barricaded himself in the residence,” Holland said.
A woman and a 12-year-old child managed to escape the residence when deputies arrived.
“Throughout the night you could hear him hammering windows and doors shut,” Holland said.
Deputies evacuated a couple of nearby homes as a precaution.
Law enforcement set up a perimeter around the house, called for the sheriff’s tactical team as well as a tactical team from Jackson County, along with an armored vehicle.
“We tried to negotiate but received no communication with the suspect inside,” Holland said. “Officers throughout the night could see him holding a long rifle and a shotgun.”
Officers then shot tear gas into the house.
“We heard no noises, so after about an hour, our SWAT team as well as the Jackson County SWAT team made entry into the residence,” he said.
The suspect was nowhere to be found.
“After about an hour of searching the house, we heard from 911 dispatch that our suspect was apprehended at a local convenience store up the road,” he said. “We believe he was able to crawl out a small window on the side of the house,” he said. “We did recover a shotgun and a pistol outside, a few feet from a window.”
Spears was charged with attempted first degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon, simple assault, assault with a deadly weapon with a minor present, kidnapping and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
The standoff occurred as the remnants of a tropical storm blew through the area.
“It was a long night. It was a very dangerous situation could have ended much differently,” Holland said.