Calhoun police scuffle with fugitives from North Carolina

Calvin Lee Metcalf ran away from the cops, toward his truck and his gun - or rather, somebody's truck and somebody's gun.

Metcalf and his cousin, 25-year-old Philip Nicholas Metcalf, stopped at a Kangaroo Express convenience store on North U.S. Highway 41 in Calhoun, Ga., at 4:30 a.m. Tuesday to try to sell an AR-15 rifle, police said.

Police don't know why the Metcalfs were trying to sell the gun at that hour, though they have a theory: The Metcalfs were on the run, fugitives from North Carolina. About 12 hours earlier, according to police, they beat up an Avery County, N.C., detective, took his guns and his truck and drove away. Now, they needed money.

The cousins tried to sell the gun to the Kangaroo's clerk, according to an incident report, but he wasn't interested. Then, when the cousins went into the bathroom, the clerk called 911.

Two officers arrived. They found Phillip Metcalf sitting in a 2011 Dodge Ram. When a dispatcher advised that the truck had been reported stolen out of North Carolina, an officer handcuffed Metcalf.

Another officer walked into the store, according to the incident report. He found 20-year-old Calvin Metcalf inside.

"What's your name?" the officer asked.

"What for?" Calvin Metcalf responded.

"Where are you from?"

"Tennessee."

The officer later said Calvin Metcalf seemed "agitated." He told him to put his hands behind his back, and that's when Calvin Metcalf made a run for it. He had a gun waiting underneath the truck's back seat.

Metcalf reached the driver's seat. But so did one of the officers. Calvin Metcalf turned the keys in the ignition and put the vehicle in reverse. The officer then grabbed him, held him down and put the car back in park. The second officer then deployed pepper spray and slapped handcuffs on Calvin Metcalf.

The Calhoun Police Department charged the cousins with theft by taking, bringing stolen property into the state and being fugitives from justice.

Police only learned about the Metcalfs' previous activities after the arrest. The cousins had been arrested and charged with breaking into homes in North Carolina. While staying at the McDowell County Jail, the Metcalfs told officers that they committed more burglaries in neighboring Avery County.

The cousins said they would show investigators specifically where they committed those additional crimes if officers took them there, said Richelle Bailey, spokeswoman for the McDowell County Sheriff's Office.

When an Avery County detective took the cousins out of the jail, Calhoun Lt. Tony Pyle said, the Metcalfs beat the man up, pistol-whipped him, took his keys and drove away with his truck.

They remained in the Gordon County Jail on Wednesday without bonds.

Contact staff writer Tyler Jett at 423-757-6476 or tjett@timesfreepress.com.

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