Patrick Donahue

Editor & General Manager

A little over a year ago, I had one of those moments when you realize just how small your world is.

I was standing in the muddy parking lot of a peanut and cotton gin in a usually quiet corner of Thomas County, just outside Ochlocknee. Actually, it might have been closer to Meigs, and don’t get me started on Meigs. There were dozens of law enforcement officers around. There were armored vehicles, helicopters, SUVs, K9s, even bloodhounds, and a number of those officers in full gear with loaded weapons in their hands. When I say loaded, I mean loaded. Even when they went to get a cup of coffee, their weapons were loaded.

They were there for a manhunt, looking for a guy who resisted arrest on a warrant, taking a deputy’s gun from him and shooting two of the three deputies who were there to serve the warrant.

Now, on this cold afternoon in a remote part of the county, teams of agents waited for tips to come in on the suspect’s whereabouts. They’d get a call and go dashing out. I got to know some of the folks at the sheriff ’s office pretty well, even if it wasn’t technically my beat. As one of them said to me one day, “If you see me in a bullet proof vest, it’s a bad day.”

He had his bullet proof vest on. One such tip came in. A member of the U.S. Marshals Service, fully armed and geared up, came running over to me just as the rest of his team was getting in their car.

“You’re from Hinesville!” he exclaimed, and then ran to get in his vehicle and go after the tip.

I stood there with a couple of other law enforcement officers I knew. He was right. I am from Hinesville. I didn’t recognize him right away, but it was apparent I covered him during his playing days here.

There had to be more than 100 officers at Four Corners Gin, from two states and a half-dozen counties. A tip came in, and about two dozen officers would go out in pursuit.

Once, four of them piled into a Subaru. Now who would suspect that an unmarked Subaru would have four fully-armed and equipped officers, ready to take down a perp?

They thought they had the suspect boxed in to about a half-mile area. Turns out they didn’t. Eventually, he got to a house, called his folks and they persuaded him to turn himself in.

The deputies he shot survived and went back to duty. The suspect, wanted for a probation violation, remains in jail. I don’t think he’s gone to trial yet.

It was the second of two manhunts I covered in that same area, about a year and a half apart. The other guy — wanted for kidnapping and murder — was found hiding under a log in the river on a scorching hot July day. He’s doing life for kidnapping, but he was acquitted on murder.

He then filed a motion for a new trial because of ineffective counsel. After his lawyer got him acquitted on a murder charge. I’ll let you think about that one for a second.

We used to joke that no matter where you go, Hinesville finds you. You can go to any corner of the globe, and somebody from Hinesville will be there and yell out, “Hey!”

Even in the slap middle of nowhere, next to the train tracks and tucked between Highway 3 and U.S. 19 on a chilly January day, Hinesville finds you.