'Dog the Bounty Hunter' Joins Hunt for Fugitive Who Threatened Trump - 'I Have a Very Hot Lead'
Duane Chapman, famously known as “Dog, the Bounty Hunter,” has joined the manhunt for fugitive Shawn Christy who threated President Donald Trump in June.
“I have a very hot lead. I have delivered messages to him. My goal is not to shoot him but get him to surrender,” Chapman said, according to the Mansfield News Journal.
In a Facebook post, Christy had threatened “to shoot Trump in the head and use ‘lethal force’ on any law enforcement officer trying to detain him,” according to the Louisville Courier Journal. He also reportedly threatened to kill “the district attorney in Northampton County, Pennsylvania” in the same post.
Additionally, he threatened the life of Kentucky Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer, who was previously married to Bristol Palin, the daughter of former Vice Presidential candidate, Sarah Palin. But that is not all.
“In Kentucky, Christy is accused of stealing a Jeep Grand Cherokee from Meyer’s brother, Timothy Gilliam, according to Kentucky State Police. Gilliam reported that when he returned to his home in Adair County on Aug. 9, he found the front door had been kicked in and his Jeep was gone. Christy was later spotted driving the Jeep in West Virginia,” the Courier Journal reported.
The truck was later involved in a crash near Mansfield, Ohio. Christy escaped, but his condition following the crash is unknown.
A massive manhunt has been underway for months and now involves the FBI, U.S. Marshals, SWAT, and the Secret Service.
US Marshals, Secret Service, SWAT & more are all on on the hunt for wanted fugitive #ShawnChristy, but someone else is reportedly joining in as well… 👇🏼 pic.twitter.com/QO6iWNzLVi
— Meg (Shaw) Lower (@MegDShaw) September 20, 2018
Chapman has now joined the hunt after he “was retained by a friend of the Christy family who he cannot identify publicly,” according to the Mansfield News Journal.
Chapman is hopeful he can get Christy — who he says ” is a not a career criminal” — to turn himself in. Christy’s father has already tried to reach out to his son, with a message of warning:
A father reaches out to his fugitive son on Facebook:
"Shawn Christy, If you see this and want to surrender, contact Mansfield City Police Chief Ken Coontz. Call 911. He is a good man and understands the https://t.co/70MscVKjKE not trust the US Marshals. Love, Mom and Dad."— staceyfreyfox8 (@staceyfreyfox8) September 18, 2018
Christy has reportedly been using Facebook since the manhunt began. But the message he left for his parents has raised some alarm: “Stay safe, I have a mission to complete.”
Federal fugitive Shawn Christy apparently left a message for his parents that ended, "Stay safe, I have a mission to complete.” https://t.co/58D3BAJZsh
— The Morning Call (@mcall) September 14, 2018
The FBI is offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to his arrest. According to the Louisville Courier Journal, the U.S. Marshal Service is also offering a reward of up to $20,000 for the same.
Chapman will be in the Mansfield area on Sept. 27 to join in the manhunt. He was already slated to be in the area to lead “A Town Hall Meeting on Addiction and How to Find Your Road to Redemption” on Sept. 28, the Mansfield News Journal reported.
It may sound like fortuitous timing and Chapman credits God for it, nothing it has happened before. “I was in Idaho last year and a guy shot a preacher in the back. It was the same town I was going to, too.”
“Miracles happen every day in my life. It’s a God thing.”
Chapman believes the truck crash occurred because Christy fell asleep and that the fugitive is not armed. Police, however, are not taking any chances, warning the public in the area to lock their doors and vehicles.
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