MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A residential street in the Annesdale section of South Memphis was swarming with police Wednesday afternoon as they attempted to locate several car theft suspects.
Police said all of them got away except for Stanley Johnson, 32, who was discovered hiding in the bed of a truck parked in a Dorothy Place driveway, according to witnesses.
“I just heard them yelling, like, you know, ‘Get up, get up, get up!’ and I looked out the window and I just see them pulling the man out the truck and then them taking him,” said Skyla, 16, who watched from her bedroom window as police descended on her father’s truck.
“My daughter was hollering and screaming, like, ‘Someone’s in your truck, someone’s in the truck,'” said Skyla’s father Mike.
Police said it all began around 2:30 p.m. after a man who was stopped at the corner of Vance and Cynthia was carjacked by four armed men.
The stolen vehicle was spotted about an hour later at Crump and Camilla where authorities tried to make a traffic stop. It’s unclear if all four suspects were inside, but the driver fled the scene and abandoned the vehicle in the 1300 block of Williams.
Witnesses claimed to have seen Johnson run through several backyards, hopping fences and taking off outer layers of clothing possibly in an attempt to disguise his appearance.
They said he then crawled under a tarp in the bed of Mike’s truck.
“That really scared me because, you know, the level of protection especially with someone like that dangerous around. He’s right there in the back of my truck, you know, in my backyard,” said Mike.
Johnson was taken into custody and charged with carjacking, employment of a firearm, possession of a controlled substance, evading arrest, intentionally evading arrest in auto and convicted felon in possession of a gun.