March 23, 2023

RCC K9 Unit Officers Captures Murder Suspect in Pike County MS After Intense 3-hr Manhunt

Rayburn Correctional Center and the Pike County MS Sheriff's Office has reported on the capture of 37 year-old Rashan Danyale Smith, an escaped murder suspect in a recent homicide in Brookhaven, MS. The capture of Smith followed an intense three-hour manhunt outside Summit, MS on Tuesday (March 21, 2023) night that involved multiple law enforcement agencies: Pike County Sheriff's Office, Lincoln County Sheriff's Office, Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Offices, McComb Police, Brookhaven Police, Summit Police, Southwest Mississippi Community College Police, the Mississippi Highway Patrol, Mississippi Wildlife and Fisheries, and dog teams from the Rayburn Correctional Center  and Tangipahoa Sheriff's Office as well as a helicopter from Mississippi Highway Patrol. 

Smith reportedly has a criminal history peppered with violence and the tendency to run from the law. He escaped police custody in Brookhaven in October, 2022 and was also accused of shooting and wounding a woman there in 2020.

On March 21, 2023, a McComb police officer spotted a vehicle matching the description posted in a BOLO traveling on North Locust Street and attempted to stop Smith, who fled. The pursuit continued on North Locust Street and to Horace Holmes Road, where Smith wrecked between Robb Street Extension and Robert Ayers Road just east of Summit. A heavy police presence descended on the area. RCC's K-9s were able to pick-up a scent trail from a dropped handgun and lost shoe. RCC officers apprehended the suspect without incident in a wooded area just south of Southwest Mississippi Community College. 

Pike County Sheriff Brumfield expressed his thanks to all agencies involved.

RCC Warden Travis Day stated, “In my opinion, RCC K-9 Unit is an elite group. Their pride, dedication, consistency and training make them one of the best tracking groups in the Southeastern United States.”



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