The Bay County Sheriff Office was involved in a high speed chase through two counties and an all night manhunt that ended this morning with the arrest of Christopher Griner by the Washington County Sheriff’s Office in the Sunny Hills area.
Friday evening May 17, 2013, as Sheriff Frank McKeithen was driving north on Highway 77, a vehicle driving recklessly passed him at a high rate of speed. Sheriff McKeithen recognized the vehicle as possibly belonging to a man wanted on two felony warrants. Christopher Griner had been involved in a domestic argument Friday morning in Callaway in which shots were fired. Sheriff MKeithen pursued the vehicle through Southport into the Sand Hills where the vehicle struck another car twice while travelling near 100 mph. Griner left the scene as Sheriff McKeithen stopped to render assistance to the woman in the struck vehicle, who, as it turned out, was not seriously injured.
While at the scene of the crash, another BCSO deputy arrived to help and a citizen stopped to report that Griner’s vehicle had been abandoned within the Sunny Hills development off Highway 77. Sheriff McKeithen located the abandoned vehicle and learned that Griner had fled into nearby woods on foot.
The Washington County Sheriff’s Office also responded and set up a perimeter in the area. Addition BCSO deputies responded as well as the BCSO Air Unit and several tracking K9s from correctional institutions in the area. The search for Griner continued until the morning hours of Saturday, May 18, 2013 when a call came into the WCSO about a suspicious person. When WCSO deputies responded they located Christopher Griner and took him into custody. Griner was found near Sunny Hills, where he originally entered the woods.
You can listen to Sheriff’s Dept. audio of the high speed chase and manhunt HERE!