Two men bolted from a traffic stop on US-301 near Murray Ford in the Sampson City area, sending Bradford County Sheriff's deputies and Florida Highway Patrol troopers scrambling through the rural pine-and-wetland community to find them. Authorities described the pair only as Hispanic males — one in a blue shirt and black pants, the other in a white shirt and khaki pants with a rose tattoo on his left hand — and are urging anyone who spots them not to approach.
The search began after the suspects fled the stop near Murray Ford on US-301, according to Sheriff Gordon Smith of the Bradford County Sheriff's Office, who posted a public request for assistance early Thursday morning. The sheriff's office said it is assisting Florida Highway Patrol in the search and asked Sampson City residents directly to be on the lookout for the two men. As reported by News4JAX, the incident prompted law enforcement to issue public advisories and shut down a southbound lane of US-301 while the search continued.
Murray Ford sits at 13447 US-301 South, roughly half a mile south of the Starke Walmart Supercenter along one of the county's busiest commercial strips, per Florida commercial real estate listings. From there, the trail leads into Sampson City itself, an unincorporated community about five to six miles southwest of Starke marked by pine forests, wetlands, and scattered homes near Lake Sampson, according to Grokipedia. That terrain gives searchers plenty of cover to comb through but also plenty of places for two men on foot to disappear.
Deputies Urge Caution, Not Confrontation
The sheriff's office advised the public to use extreme caution in the area and asked anyone who sees the suspects to call 911 immediately rather than approach them. One southbound lane of US-301 remained closed because of the police activity and the ongoing search, a closure that carries outsized consequences given the highway's role. US-301 is a major regional artery through Starke and Bradford County, carrying heavy commercial truck and commuter traffic between Interstate 75 and Interstate 10, according to the Louis Law Group.
Sheriff Smith has led the Bradford County Sheriff's Office since he was first elected in November 2008, after earlier serving as Chief of Police for the City of Starke and as a corrections officer. Rural communities like Sampson City lean on volunteer infrastructure to support that kind of law enforcement response — the Sampson City Volunteer Fire Department is headquartered on SW County Road 227 near the US-301 corridor, per Bradford County Emergency Management records.
A Familiar Pattern Along US-301
This is not the first time a Bradford County traffic stop has ended with someone running into the brush. In March, deputies executed a high-risk stop on US-301 where a passenger fled on foot into a retention pond area while carrying a firearm before eventually being taken into custody, as Hoodline previously reported. Joint operations between county deputies and state troopers happen regularly along the corridor, reflecting how often US-301 traffic enforcement turns into something bigger.
Whatever charges the two men now face if caught will likely include fleeing or attempting to elude a law enforcement officer, a third-degree felony under Florida law punishable by up to five years in prison. That charge escalates to a second-degree felony carrying up to 15 years if the flight involved reckless high-speed driving, according to the Florida Legislature's statute on the offense. State lawmakers toughened those penalties further through House Bill 113, which took effect in 2025 and expanded the fleeing-and-eluding law to cover even low-speed evasions while pushing courts toward active prison time over probation.
Bradford County spans roughly 293 square miles and is home to about 28,000 residents, with hundreds of traffic crashes and law enforcement interactions recorded each year concentrated along US-301. As of Thursday morning, the sheriff's office had not said what prompted the original traffic stop near Murray Ford, whether the suspects fled on foot or by other means once they left the vehicle, or whether anything was recovered from it — details that remain unresolved as the search continues.
