Sheriffs attribute man’s arrest to teamwork among counties

DECATUR COUNTY, Tenn.– A man who said he wouldn’t be taken alive is now in custody. Billie Joe Cruse is well-known to the Benton County Sheriff.

“One of my officers found him and another man, what appeared to be, breaking into a house,” Sheriff Kenny Christopher said, “We took the other man into custody, and Mr. Cruse ran, so since then, we’ve had warrants on him.”

Ten days later, someone spotted Cruse in Decatur County.

“He had made the statement that he wouldn’t be taken alive,” Sheriff Keith Byrd said.

At that point, the chase was on.

“We went after this guy, and in the process, he almost collided with two other cars. They chased him around and finally lost him right before dark,” Byrd said.

Even though the suspect was found, and the chase was in Decatur County, it wasn’t just those deputies who responded.

“I called Sheriff Belew in Henry County and asked him, ‘Do you have a bloodhound?’

He said, ‘I got two. Do you want one?’

I said, ‘I need one bad.’

So he sent me a bloodhound and handler down and in less than 10 minutes, we had the guy in custody.”

Byrd and Christopher say this arrest was made because of how well West Tennessee Sheriffs Offices work together.

“Instead of dealing with one county, when you deal with one of the counties in our area, you’re going to get all of them coming at you. So that’s worked out very well,” Sheriff Christopher said.

Cruse was taken to the hospital, since Sheriff Byrd suspects he took some sort of drugs. Now he’s being held in the Decatur County Criminal Justice Complex.