Armed Robbery Suspect Captured by BPS

In today’s environment, it’s not often you read or hear a story about police officers capturing a dangerous suspect, using their training, and keeping a cool head.  That’s not to say it doesn’t happen, because it does.  Every day.  In fact, this is a story about police officers that encountered a dangerous, potentially armed suspect in the woods and a story that ends with the suspect in custody and nobody hurt.  This is a good news story.

Around 1:25 a.m., Sunday, July 10, Bainbridge Public Safety Officer Jayson Myers was dispatched to Dennard Street in Bainbridge in reference to an armed robbery.  According to the caller, a man named Rakim Bouie had robbed him with a gun on Water Street about ten minutes prior to the call.  While en route to the call, Officer Myers heard Officer George McMillan radio that he had spotted the suspect and was engaged in a foot pursuit.  According to the incident report, Officer Myers responded to the area where Officer McMillan was chasing the suspect.  While en route to the Water Street area, Officer Myers heard radio traffic of Officer McMillan stating he had chased the suspect underneath a house and was holding him at gunpoint.  Seconds later, McMillan notified the responding officers that the suspect was running once again.

After arriving on scene, Officer Myers, along with several other officers, began scouring the area looking for the suspect.  While searching a fence line behind a local business, Myers spotted the suspect, Rakim Bouie, hiding in some bushes.

Because of the nature of the original 911 call, Officer Myers immediately un-holstered his weapon and pointed it at Bouie, while giving verbal commands to “show his hands”.  However, Mr. Bouie was not immediately compliant and it took several commands to convince him to comply.  When he finally showed his hands, Bouie attempted to stand up.  Myers responded by telling Bouie to get back on the ground.  At this point, Bouie turned away from the officer and put his left hand in his pocket.  In the woods, at nearly 2:00 in the morning, with an armed robbery suspect that refuses to obey commands, sticking his hand in his pocket.  This story is at a crossroads.  The turn the story takes leads to the best possible ending.

Heroically, as Bouie was removing his hand from his pocket, Georgia State Patrol Trooper Brian Palmer “ran into the bushes where Bouie was, and tackled him to the ground.  McMillan and Palmer gained control over Bouie’s hands, and Trooper Darren Heard placed handcuffs to the rear of Bouie.” (BPS Report)

After taking Bouie into custody, the BPS Officers Myers and McMillan searched the area where he was hiding.  They were looking for a bag that McMillan spotted Bouie carrying during the pursuit.  Lying on the east side of a residence on Broughton Street, Officer Myers found a backpack containing a “grey/silver color pellet gun pistol wrapped in a red bandana” (BPS Report).

Rakim Raheem Bouie was charged with armed robbery and obstruction of an officer.

Information from the Bainbridge Public Safety Report was used in this story.