MARION COUNTY, Texas (KETK) – An off-duty Marion County Sheriff’s deputy helped arrest a man who broke into a store in Jefferson, Texas, Wednesday night.
MCSO got a call from Shop Max in Jefferson around 8:20 p.m. because a customer went into the store and threw a cash register on the floor and started smashing things. MCSO called the Jefferson Police Department to the store, but the suspect left before officials arrived.
Later that night, MCSO received a call from an alarm company because an alarm went off at the NAPA store, which is close to the Shop Max. Jefferson Police Chief Florentino Perez made it to the store and saw it had been broken into. He also saw a suspect still at the location.
Perez tried to arrest the suspect, but the man fought with the officer. Off-duty MCSO Deputy Mel Wolverton was on his second job, and he heard about the incident on the radio.
Wolverton later saw the suspect walking down the road. The deputy got out of his car and told the suspect to get on the ground, and they followed his orders.
More police officers made it to the scene and arrested the suspect, who was identified as James Earl Warren Jr.
Warren was also the suspect involved in two other incidents that day.
On Wednesday at about 9:15 a.m. Shop Max called deputies because a man had stolen items from the store, and police were sent to the location. Around 12:33 p.m., MCSO got a call about a man who was in the middle of the road and screaming at people. He was only wearing shorts without a shirt. Police identified the man as Warren.