FREDERICKTOWN – Kathy Hathaway was at the kitchen table Tuesday evening, talking with a couple of longtime friends, when the sirens began.
It was a calm spring night – the sun dipping below the horizon, the dew settling on the grass – until it wasn’t. First came the maroon car, tearing down Montgomery Road in Fredericktown and taking a sharp left. Then came the caravan of law enforcement vehicles right behind it – lights flashing, horns honking, sirens blaring.
“Holy crap, look at these!” Hathaway can be heard saying from a video she posted on Facebook later that night. She counted off vehicles one by one, then came to a conclusion.
“They’re around here somewhere.”
Indeed, he was. Charles Shannon was on the run. The 44-year-old Mount Vernon resident, fresh off a three-year prison stint for aggravated trafficking and possession of drugs, had allegedly violated his parole terms, and there was a warrant out for his arrest.
He was also the subject of an active investigation, which law enforcement officials could not detail because the case is still sealed.
After failing to comply with a traffic stop, Shannon led officers on a high-speed chase across Knox County. He eventually ditched his vehicle and fled on foot, leading to a manhunt that lasted nearly 24 hours, before he was ultimately apprehended in Amity on Wednesday night.
Shannon is being held in the Knox County Jail. Putting him behind bars took a concerted effort. It took the teamwork of five local law enforcement agencies and the community. It took helicopters, K-9 units, and engaged citizens.
This is the story of those 24 hours, according to interviews with law enforcement officials and records obtained by Knox Pages.
The chase
It all began with an attempted traffic stop on State Route 13, just north of Mount Vernon.
Deputies from the Knox County Sheriff’s Office spotted Shannon driving a 2003 Chevrolet HHR, which was believed to be stolen, around 8:39 p.m., according to police reports.
Shannon was wanted for his parole violation, but he was also the subject of an active investigation, Knox County Sheriff David Shaffer said. While he couldn’t go into details about the case (according to Knox County Prosecutor Chip McConville, it involves a warrant that is still sealed), Shaffer implied this traffic stop had been a long time coming.
“There is a specific reason why they attempted to make a traffic stop,” he said, “and why they were targeting him to begin with.”
Deputies flashed their lights and attempted to pull Shannon over near Glenn’s Sales, Service & Hardware. But according to police reports, Shannon never stopped. Instead, he sped up.
Shannon raced along Route 13, eventually turning east on Beckley Road and before bolting north on Upper Fredericktown Road. He took a hard right onto Montgomery Road, heading east once again, which is when he passed Hathaway.
“We saw the car was not stopping and all the cops behind him,” said Hathaway, who watched from her friend’s porch as the pursuit unfolded. “We knew it was a chase.”
Shannon took another hard turn, this time onto Old Mansfield Road, where he resumed his trek north. He continued to wind his way through Knox County’s hilly backroads, reaching speeds of 120 miles per hour at times, according to McConville. Mount Vernon and Fredericktown police officers ultimately joined sheriff’s deputies in the pursuit.
“Over the course of the next hour, we could hear sirens cutting through the different roads in the area,” Hathaway recalled.
Tragedy struck midway through the pursuit. A dog ran onto the road as officers crested a hill, McConville said, and was killed immediately.
Shannon also reportedly threw items out of the car during the chase, but none were recovered by law enforcement.
“When you’re driving 120 miles per hour, you’re not going to remember which bush an item landed in,” McConville cracked.
Sheriff’s deputies tried using Stop Sticks to disable Shannon’s vehicle, McConville added, but he managed to elude them. Shannon turned east onto Upper Fredericktown-Amity Road, south onto North Liberty Road, and east again onto Barton Road. Officers lost sight of him at this time, Shaffer said.
They received a call 12 minutes later, around 9:05 p.m., about an abandoned vehicle on Yarman Road in Amity. Parked near a wooded area, it matched the description of the one Shannon had driven earlier that night.
The suspect had fled on foot.
The manhunt
For the next four hours, sheriff’s deputies searched Amity in the dark.
They requested assistance from the Ohio State Highway Patrol’s aviation unit, established a perimeter, and alerted local residents. But they could not find Shannon.
The search resumed the next morning, when the sheriff’s office received a call about a man who matched Shannon’s description. He was wearing a red hat, laying in a tree lawn, covered in leaves near State Route 3.
“When our officer got out there at about 11:31 a.m., that’s when he saw him,” Shaffer said. “He took off when our officer pulled into the woods across the road.”
The pursuit was on once again. Deputies established a perimeter, stretching from Carson Road on the west to Rinehart Road on the east, with Barton Road and Wooster Road serving as the north-south boundaries, respectively.
They warned local residents to lock their cars and repeated Shannon’s description, telling them to call the sheriff’s office if they saw anything suspicious. They also sent out a Knox Alert to inform the public of the ongoing manhunt.
Over the next two hours, deputies combed the area. They searched the wooded terrain on-foot, alongside K-9 units from Mount Vernon and Danville, and also received assistance from well-equipped local residents.
“We were actively searching and relying on public assistance …,” Shaffer said. “A couple (deputies) were out on ATVs with a homeowner in that area, checking specific locations.”
Deputies had cleared the area by 2 p.m., but still could not find Shannon. The sheriff’s office sent out a press release shortly thereafter, detailing the suspect’s description and potential location. Then, around 7:54 p.m., the dam broke.
“We got a call (about) someone who fit the description and was in the area, heading south on Route 3,” Shaffer said.
Deputies requested a K-9 unit from the Mount Vernon Police Department and rushed to the scene. With the help of Laya, the MVPD’s chief sniffer, they found Shannon minutes later, in the area of 15195 Wooster Rd.
At 8:35 p.m. Wednesday – 23 hours and 56 minutes after the attempted traffic stop – Shannon was taken into custody. He “complied and was transported without incident,” Shaffer said.
What’s next
Shannon was held in the Knox County Jail over the weekend on the parole violation. McConville was not ready to announce charges late last week, noting the ongoing nature of the investigation.
“I’m expecting that sheriff’s detectives will present the case to a grand jury,” McConville said.
