SUSPECT IN TOCCOA OFFICER-INVOLVED SHOOTING ARRESTED IN LAVONIA

The search for the suspect involved in an officer-involved shooting Monday in Toccoa is now in custody.

Late Tuesday afternoon, 37-year-old Montavious Cantrell Winkfield surrendered to police in Lavonia.

On Monday, Winkfield allegedly shot at a Stephens County Sheriff’s deputy after the vehicle he was in was pulled over.

The deputy returned fire and Winkfield fled on foot.

An all-out manhunt ensued by multiple law enforcement agencies and the GBI  in Toccoa that lasted well into the night Monday but Winkfield was never found.

Then Tuesday morning, sister station WNEG in Toccoa reported that Toccoa police officers had responded to a report of a kidnapping and assault that started on Peachtree Street and proceeded into the county near Owens Farm Supply, where the victim was put out on the side of the road.

At around noon Tuesday, Lavonia Police Chief Shane Edmisten said his office received word that Winkfield was in the Lavonia area. Multiple law enforcement agencies from Franklin and Hart counties, the Georgia State Patrol, and the GSP SWAT team descended on an apartment complex on Poole St. in Lavonia.

Edmisten said later that the truck taken in the Toccoa carjacking/kidnapping incident that morning was later found in Lavonia near the apartments where Winkfield was hiding out.

Winkfield was taken back to Toccoa by agents with the GBI and turned over to Toccoa Police for questioning.

Chief Edmisten thanked the multiple law enforcement agencies involved in Winkfield’s arrest.

Winkfield faces multiple charges including two counts of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer.