Suspicious person call ends with suspect up a tree

January 26, 2022

A suspicious person call this morning led officers on both a car and foot chase and ended with the suspect up a tree. Listening to reason, Donald Hankey, 37, climbed down voluntarily and was taken into custody on three drug-related warrants; two felony and one misdemeanor.

At about 7:41 a.m. today, a dispatcher took a call from an employee at Mt. Hall Elementary, where a man was requesting information about a student and seemed suspicious. By the time deputies arrived, the man had driven away, but deputies were able to get the suspect's name. They were traveling to his address when they spotted his vehicle on Camp Nine Road, and a short chase ensued, with Hankey sliding off into a ditch and taking off on foot through dense forest off Rigby Road, heading in the direction of Highway 95 and Songbird Road.

With deputies staged on Highway 95, Sheriff Dave Kramer, Undersheriff Rich Stephens and other officers followed Hankey's tracks in the snow, traveling nearly a mile before they stopped at a tree. Looking up, there was Hankey, about 20-feet up, trying to hide. After a few minutes persuasion, Hankey climbed down at about 8:57 a.m. and submitted to arrest without further incident.

On April 30, 2021, Hankey was charged with felony possession of a controlled substance, felony persistent violator enhancement, also a felony, and possession of paraphernalia, a misdemeanor.

On May 21, 2021, he pled guilty to the two possession charges, but he failed to appear for a July 23 sentencing hearing.