ROYALTON – A Magoffin County man was arrested after attempting to run from police.
On the night of August 21, Magoffin County Sheriff Department Officer N. Watson was leaving the scene where he was helping another officer arrest someone with active warrants, and when he observed a vehicle leaving a church parking lot with the driver not wearing his seatbelt.
Officer Watson pulled behind the vehicle onto Barbara Lou Salyer Road and activated a traffic stop. When he stepped out of his vehicle, he observed a white paper towel being thrown from the vehicle through the passenger front door window. Several items hit the freshly mowed and cut grass, with police able to note where the items were falling, observing a meth pipe fall to the bottom of a bush, according to the citation.
As police approached the vehicle from the passenger side, the driver was reportedly digging around in the vehicle, so Officer Watson pulled out his weapon and instructed the driver to get out of the vehicle with his hands up.
Officer D. Watson was radioed since he was nearby and told Officer N. Watson had a person at gunpoint and taking the driver into custody, asking for assistance.
The two officers reportedly found a meth pipe, test strip container with approximately 2.33 grams of a rocking substance believed to be methamphetamine, suboxone pills, an empty plastic bag and a paper towel.
While they placed the items in an evidence bag, the driver, identified as Shannon Pierce Prater, 44, of Barbara Lou Salyer Lane, Salyersville, who was also still handcuffed, allegedly took off running from them, with police chasing him 250 feet to the back door of his trailer and ordered him down off his porch.
According to the arrest citation, Prater allegedly charged at one of the officers as he was exiting the porch on the narrow wheelchair ramp.
Prater was taken to the Big Sandy Regional Detention Center, where he remains at press time, charged with failure to wear seatbelts; possession of a controlled substance, first degree, first offense, methamphetamine; drug paraphernalia – buy/possess; tampering with physical evidence; and escape second degree.
Editor’s Note: The indictment or charge of a person by a grand jury or otherwise is an accusation only and that person is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
