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Video: SC man holds fugitive at gunpoint until police arrive

Deputies had been searching for Christopher Cravets since Aug. 18

By C1 Staff

KERSHAW COUNTY, S.C. — An armed citizen held a man who had been on the run since Aug. 18 at gunpoint until deputies arrived.

Police told WLTX that a deputy was serving a car theft warrant Tuesday when Christopher Cravets saw the officer and fled on foot. He was wanted on an armed robbery charge.

https://twitter.com/number1bajan/status/902588791780773888

Deputies, K-9s and helicopters searched for Cravets, 21, for several hours. Charles Belcher, a medic, was visiting his girlfriend and went out to grab his gun from his truck after hearing about the manhunt.

Belcher went to check the property and found Cravets in the back of an SUV parked in a carport.

“I came out to check the green Explorer and saw somebody in the back and I just pulled my weapon and ordered him out of the vehicle and made him get on the ground until the cops got here,” he said. “The only thing I was worried about is if he had a gun and if he was going to try to shoot me.”

https://twitter.com/number1bajan/status/902591895611822080

Belcher held Cravets at gunpoint for a couple of minutes before deputies arrived to take Cravets into custody.

Sheriff Jim Matthews said Belcher did “a heck of a job.”

"[Cravets] pistol-whipped a girl and tried to rob her at gunpoint,” Matthews told WLTX. “We will never turn down civilian assistance when we have a situation like that because we’re pretty shorthanded and even though we had a SLED helicopter up, we need all of the help we can get and this guy stepped up to the plate and he did the right thing.”

Cravets was charged with armed robbery, possession of a firearm during the commission of a violent crime and second-degree burglary.

https://twitter.com/ChuckRingwalt/status/902621963335725056

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