A 21-year-old man wanted in connection with an assault investigation involving an elderly person was found hiding inside a Converse home Tuesday, ending a manhunt that began nearly two weeks earlier when he gave officers a false name and ran. Devontae Amillion Sweeney was taken into custody without further incident after a regional SWAT team forced its way into the residence when he refused to come out on his own.
The case traces back to August 20, when Converse police responded to a possible assault report near FM 78 and Crestway Road, according to WOAI. Officers located and detained a male subject matching the suspect's description at a nearby business, but he gave them a false identity and escaped custody before fleeing the area, per the same report. Detectives with the department's Criminal Investigations Division later identified him as Sweeney and, as they built the case, obtained three additional warrants against him.
A Two-Week Search Ends at a Haven Meadow Home
The hunt for Sweeney stretched nearly two weeks before it converged on the 6700 block of Haven Meadow in Converse on Tuesday, when police located him there. Officers tried numerous times to get him to surrender voluntarily, but when he refused to comply, the Alamo Area Metro SWAT Team was brought in to assist, ultimately entering the residence and finding Sweeney hiding inside in an attempt to avoid arrest, the report notes.
Converse police publicly thanked the Alamo Area Metro SWAT Team for its assistance in locating and arresting Sweeney. The tactical unit is a multi-jurisdictional task force pooling specialized officers from municipal departments across eastern Bexar, Guadalupe, and Comal counties, including Converse, Schertz, Live Oak, Selma, Cibolo, Universal City, Windcrest, Seguin, and Alamo Heights, according to the Schertz Police Department. Deploying that regional team signaled that this was treated as more than a routine local arrest.
Six Warrants, Including Escape and Drug Delivery Charges
By the time he was booked, Sweeney faced six total warrant charges: escape from custody, failure to identify as a fugitive, unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon, manufacture or delivery of a Penalty Group 1-B controlled substance in an amount between 4 and 200 grams, and two additional drug possession counts, according to The Bandera Review. He had been wanted on three active felony warrants even before the escape added to his exposure.
Those charges carry serious weight under Texas law. Escaping from custody while detained for a felony offense is elevated from a Class A misdemeanor to a third-degree felony carrying two to 10 years in state prison, per LawServer. Giving false identifying information to an officer is normally a Class B misdemeanor, but the same statute bumps that up to a Class A misdemeanor — up to a year in county jail and a $4,000 fine — when the person is a fugitive with active warrants, according to Georgetown Law. The drug delivery warrant is especially severe: manufacturing or delivering a Penalty Group 1-B substance, which includes fentanyl and its derivatives, in the 4-to-200-gram range is a first-degree felony punishable by 10 to 99 years or life in prison under Texas Health and Safety Code Section 481.1123, per FindLaw.
A Prior Record of Weapons and Property Crimes
Converse police records show Sweeney's prior adult criminal history includes arrests and charges for unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, theft of a firearm, evading arrest or detention, unlawful carrying of a weapon, burglary of vehicles, and engaging in organized criminal activity. That pattern of weapons and theft offenses helps explain why his escape triggered such a large law enforcement response. The original August 20 report that started the investigation involved an assault against an elderly person; under Texas Penal Code Section 22.04, causing injury to someone 65 or older is a felony that can range from a state-jail offense up to a first-degree felony punishable by 5 to 99 years or life in prison, according to Versus Texas.
Following his arrest, Sweeney was booked into the Bexar County Central Magistrate's Office in San Antonio, the facility responsible for initial judicial processing, magistrate warnings, and bond determinations on felony arrests across the county, per Lance Kennedy Law. The identity and condition of the elderly assault victim from the original incident have not been publicly detailed, and it remains unclear whether anyone connected to the Haven Meadow residence could face charges related to Sweeney's time evading arrest there.
