A man believed to be armed was taken into custody Friday evening after a hours-long manhunt that sent officers chasing him through a St. George golf course, down into a riverbed, and finally to an Interstate 15 on-ramp, where SWAT officers loaded him into an ambulance. The search began near 600 West and Dixie Drive around 4 p.m. and ended roughly four hours later near the I-15 ramp across from Auto Mall Drive.
The St. George Police Department searched for the suspect near 600 West and Dixie Drive starting Friday afternoon, according to KUTV. Police said the man may have been armed and described him as a tall white man with facial hair and short, cropped dark hair, standing about 5 feet 10 inches tall. He was last seen wearing a long-sleeved gray shirt, black pants, and dark shoes, per the same report.
The search coincided with a crash and vehicle fire shortly after 4 p.m. near the Dixie Drive exit off I-15, though police did not immediately confirm to local news whether the crash was directly connected to the fleeing suspect, according to Gephardt Daily. As the search unfolded, the suspect reportedly fled through the Southgate Golf Course and into the Santa Clara River bed, prompting armed officers and K-9 units to move through the course while golfers were still present, Gephardt Daily reported.
Suspect Seen Jumping From Overpass
Images released by law enforcement during the search showed the suspect appearing to jump off an overpass structure while evading officers, KUTV reported. The apparent fall offers context for early police reports that the man may have been injured during the pursuit.
SWAT officers took the suspect into custody around 8 p.m. near the I-15 ramp across from Auto Mall Drive. An eyewitness told the station he appeared unconscious, with wet and dirty clothing, as officers loaded him into an ambulance. Police had not immediately disclosed his identity or announced formal charges by the time of that report.
No Shelter-In-Place, but Residents Urged to Stay Alert
During the search, the Washington County Utah Citizen Alert system issued a notification advising residents near 600 West and Dixie Drive to stay aware of their surroundings, while explicitly clarifying that no formal shelter-in-place order had been issued. The St. George Police Department asked people in the area to remain aware of their surroundings rather than intervene, per police.
The Dixie Drive and Exit 5 area functions as a key transportation hub in southern St. George, linking Interstate 15 with commercial corridors along Auto Mall Drive, the Southgate Golf Course, and the Santa Clara River drainage, according to the St. George City government. That mix of highway overpasses, commercial strips and open riverbed terrain likely complicated efforts to contain the search area as it stretched across multiple types of terrain.
A Rare Scale of Response for a Low-Crime City
The department maintains specialized tactical units, including a SWAT team, K-9 patrol officers and an Investigations Division, built to handle high-risk armed offender searches like Friday's. It is not the department's first gun-related search this year: in March, St. George Police responded after a gun was fired during a dispute near Main Street and St. George Boulevard, with the suspect in that case located and arrested without incident, per Gephardt Daily.
Episodes like Friday's manhunt remain unusual for St. George. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting data compiled in 2026 shows the city's overall crime rate sits 43% below the national average, with an estimated annual violent crime risk of 1 in 449 residents, placing it among the safer U.S. cities of its size, according to data compiled by DoorProfit.
Authorities have not publicly identified the man taken into custody near Auto Mall Drive, and no charges had been announced as of the most recent reporting. It also remains unconfirmed whether the crash and fire near Exit 5 were directly tied to the suspect's flight, a detail police had not resolved as the search wrapped up Friday night.
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