The sheriff’s department is looking for a 35-year-old man who fired shots at a police vehicle after an attempt to serve a warrant last Monday went sour.
As of press time, Kevin Glenn Smith is still on the loose after a pursuit across several counties. Sheriff Patrick Ray told the Review that detectives attempting to serve a failure to appear warrant on 26-year-old Lydia Renee Judkins, who is reportedly Smith’s girlfriend, at a Pea Ridge Road home encountered Smith at the scene.
Smith, driving a blue Nissan Pathfinder, reportedly started the engine and sped away, almost hitting the detectives. Smith allegedly fled down a logging road where officers could not follow in their patrol car and eluded them .
An overturned Pathfinder believed to be the one Smith was driving was found a couple of hours later, abandoned on Alexandria to Dismal Road. The Pathfinder was allegedly stolen from another county, and the license plate on the vehicle was stolen from a different county.
After finding the Pathfinder, local authorities called other law enforcement agencies were called in to help search for Smith.
“After the vehicle was found I alerted the Putnam County's K-9 unit and they came over with their track dog,” Ray said. “I also called for a THP helicopter to fly over with their Fleer system, which is a heat sensing device. The sheriff's department got a tip that Smith had already left the area after the helicopter and dog got on the scene. Information was received that Smith had already been picked up and taken to a residence in the city limits of Dowelltown. We left the scene on the Alexandria to Dismal Road where the Pathfinder was found and went to Dowelltown, where we learned that somebody had taken Smith from there to meet someone around Statesville Road off Highway 96 in Wilson County. We got Wilson County officers to go with us over there to do some saturated patrols to see if we could find this vehicle but we never could locate it,” the sheriff shared.
Just before daybreak Tuesday morning, Ray said sheriff's department detectives spotted a suspicious pickup truck in Dowelltown, and when they tried to stop the vehicle to investigate, the driver attempted to flee.
“As we were on our way back, detectives saw a white Toyota Tacoma that was suspicious coming out of Dowelltown,” Ray said. “There were two people in the truck, and we believe Kevin Smith was one of the persons in that vehicle.”
The truck was pursued from Highway 70 to Highway 53 in Liberty, then to Sycamore Road, Hawkins Hill Road, Highway 96, Statesville Road and then onto several backroads. One of the occupants of the fleeing truck reportedly fired a weapon several times at the lead patrol car.
Ray said the detectives did not return fire, and backed off for the safety of the officers and the public. The driver also eluded Wilson County Sheriff's Department and Watertown Police Department officers by making rapid turns on a succession of roads.
Ray said that Smith has not threatened to harm the public, but is believed to be armed, and witnesses have claimed that he has said that if he were to be approached by law enforcement officers, he would make them shoot him because he is not going back to prison.
The sheriff asks anyone with information on the whereabouts of Smith to call the DeKalb County Sheriff's Department or Central Dispatch at 215-3000.
Ray said Smith has many tattoos on his body, and has a criminal history of drug offenses, burglaries, thefts, and an escape. He now faces new felony charges in DeKalb County, and also has warrants against him in Warren, Coffee, and Cannon counties.
Smith has no known primary residence. Ray said Smith and his girlfriend have been staying with friends or sleeping in vehicles..
The sheriff said he would like to thank Chief Mark Collins of the Alexandria Police Department for calling in an off-duty officer when it was thought that the search for Smith might reach Alexandria.
Fugitive fires at patrol car

