Indian River County - Tuesday August 23, 2020: Deputies from the Indian River County Sheriff's Office and Sebastian Police Officers, along with their canine units, gave chase and caught four men early Monday morning who are accused of involvement in a string of auto burglaries across the Treasure Coast in recent weeks. A fifth suspect remains at large.
Sean Author Cody, Jayvon Lee Jackson, Sheppard Green, and Meadow Janae Allsbury, all Indian River County residents who are now jailed on multiple felony charges.
A search warrant of the vehicle they were in revealed numerous stolen items including three firearms, one laptop, nine wallets, numerous credit cards, and various purses. Two masks used in the burglaries were also recovered from their vehicle.
Authorities believe there may be as many as 30 victims whose vehicles have been burglarized in Indian River, as well as Martin County. More victims are expected to come forward as the investigation continues.
"Not just in Indian River County," said Sheriff Eric Flowers. "We got ties to Brevard County, we got ties to St. Lucie, to Martin," he said during a Tuesday news conference.
Both the Sheriff's Office and Sebastian Police began getting a series of calls Sunday night into Monday morning reporting thefts from various vehicles in the County.
In a Tuesday News Conference IRC Sheriff Eric Flowers said Deputies recognized a pattern. They came up with names of some possible suspects, knew the vehicles they drove, and checked their license plate reader data base to see if any of those vehicles had recently been spotted on County roads.
A suspect Ford Escort turned up, and deputies spotted it around 4 am Monday near the IRC Fairgrounds. They tried to stop the vehicle, but Sheriff Flowers said the Escort took off. "That's when they knew this was a very dangerous situation," said the Sheriff. "Guns had been involved in these burglaries."
Stop sticks were deployed, shredding the Escort's tires, but the suspect car continued speeding down a dirt road in the 900 block of 5th St SW where it eventually came to a stop in front of a canal. The suspects started to bail out, but a pursing police cruiser, that couldn't stop in time, bumped the rear of the Escort, forcing it down the slope of the canal where it stopped short of the water.
Three of the four suspects were nabbed there, a fourth fled into the bush. Sebastian K9 Officer Smith and IRC K9 Corporal Revis and their canines went after him. K9 Officer Smith and his partner Ghost were able to locate the suspect who was hiding in the tall saw grass.
View the video of the apprehension here > https://fb.watch/f4Qmi9ry6P/.
No one was injured during the incident and many personal items are being returned to their rightful owners.