SAND HILLS — A 30-year-old Panama City man was arrested Saturday morning after an overnight multi-agency manhunt.
The Washington County Sheriff’s Office reported the capture and arrest of Christopher Griner Saturday shortly before 8 a.m. in the Pine Log and Wood Road near the Sunny Hills development in Washington County.
According to reports from the Bay and Washington County sheriff’s offices, this is what happened:
Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen was driving north on State 77 when a vehicle passed him at a high speed. McKeithen recognized the vehicle as possibly belonging to a man wanted on two felony warrants. Griner had been involved in a domestic argument Friday morning in Callaway in which shots were fired.
McKeithan pursued the vehicle to the Sand Hills area where Griner’s vehicle struck another car while traveling nearly 100 mph. Griner left the scene and McKeithen stopped to help the woman in the struck car. The woman was not seriously injured, according to BCSO.
Griner abandoned his vehicle and ran into a nearby wooded area.
WCSO responded and set up a perimeter in the area. Additional BCSO deputies responded as well as the BCSO helicopter and several tracking K9s.
The search for Griner continued until Saturday morning, when the Washington County Sheriff’s Office was called about a suspicious person who had walked out of the woods in the Sunny Hills area. WCSO deputies located Griner and took him into custody. Griner was near where he originally entered the woods.
Griner was arrested for violation of probation, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and shooting into an occupied dwelling.
In addition to the two sheriff’s departments, other agencies involved in the manhunt were the Florida Highway Patrol, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and Northwest Florida Reception Center K9 Team.
