COLLEGE PARK, Ga. — Law enforcement officers in metro Atlanta spent multiple hours Thursday looking for the Arizona murder suspect who they say escaped near the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
It wasn’t until after 11 p.m. that College Park Police captured 20-year-old J’Saan Carlos Strover. Authorities say callers in the area spotted the suspect, who had escaped Maricopa County, Arizona deputies at the airport.
College Park Police released bodycam video Friday, which shows the moments leading up to Strover’s arrest.
The clip police released is about 25 minutes. 11Alive edited the video down to be just under 10 minutes, cutting out some of the parts where the officer is preparing to leave the scene and driving in his patrol car.
The video starts with an officer driving and then stopping to talk with a woman. She is out of the frame, but parts of the conversation can be heard very faintly.
“I called y’all,” she said, as she describes what she saw, spotting the suspect in the area. The officer listens and then drives off.
“He probably crossed over Camp Creek. He went inside the bushes over there, they say,” he says to another officer.
The other officer gives instructions and police canvass the area.
The officer eventually parks along the highway and gets out of the police cruiser. He shines a flashlight into the wooded area on his right. Cars are also passing along the highway.
About six minutes into the clip, the officer stops and looks closely into the woods with his flashlight. Moments later, someone in a white SUV pulls up beside the officer.
Witness: I just saw somebody run into the woods
Officer: Over here?
Witness: Yep.
Officer. Bet.
The officer gets on his radio again, letting the others know another person passing by spotted the suspect.
“Another vehicle just pulled up and said he ran across Camp Creek and should be going towards the golf course," he said.
Then – his tone changes.
Officer: Yeah, I hear him, I hear him! He’s over there by my vehicle.
The officer takes off running towards his patrol unit. All of a sudden the officer runs across the roadway – with at least two cars in the path.
Officer: Aye, aye! Stop! College Park Police. Stop! Stop! College Park Police.
The officer shines his light into the woods.
Officer: Come down bro! Come down!
He repeats the commands a few times and then finally you see movement in the woods.
Officer: Faster! Faster! Lay on the ground.
Strover appears from the woods - still in handcuffs.
Officer: Lay on the ground.
Strover: You got me, man.
Officer: One detained.
Moments later, other officers swarm the area and take the suspect into custody.
The bodycam video continues and the officer eventually drives back to the police station and Strover is brought in.
Police say he'd originally been arrested in Sandy Springs and was transferred to the custody of U.S. Marshals because he was wanted for murder in Arizona. 11Alive learned that on Feb.19, investigators believe Strover took the life of 33-year-old Walter Woods in Arizona.
Authorities say he had been in the Fulton County Jail since April 12.
The manhunt on Thursday for Strover started after authorities say he escaped Arizona deputies who were extraditing him from Georgia. They were at a rental car business at the airport where the deputies had just returned a car.
Strover was handcuffed and in waist chains when deputies unlocked his ankle cuffs so they could lead him down a set of stairs. They said, at that time, he pushed past the deputies and made a break for it, running across the street and escaping into the wood line.
Strover faces charges of first-degree murder, attempt to commit first-degree murder, and aggravated assault in Arizona.
Local media reports indicate Strover was at one time a star high school basketball player in the Phoenix area.