3-hour search ends in arrest of Brookhaven murder suspect

Published 7:43 am Wednesday, March 22, 2023

A Brookhaven murder suspect was captured following a more-than three-hour manhunt in Pike County Tuesday night.

Rashan Smith of Brookhaven, 37, fled an attempted traffic stop in McComb shortly before 6 p.m. and led police on a car chase. Smith crashed, then abandoned his vehicle at Hwy. 570 and Robert Ayres Road near Southwest Mississippi Community College. He fled on foot into woods nearby, according to Brookhaven Police Detective Tim Sanders.

Smith was wanted for a murder that took place earlier this month in Brookhaven.

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He is well known to law enforcement in both Lincoln and Pike Counties.

Smith’s capture was assisted by the suspect’s having dropped a pistol and a lost a shoe during his flight. The shoe was of special use to the dog teams, police said.

The search Tuesday involved Pike and Lincoln County sheriff’s offices, Brookhaven, McComb, Summit and college police, Mississippi Highway Patrol, and dog teams from Tangipahoa Parish in Louisiana and that state’s department of corrections.

The use of K9 units led directly to Smith’s capture.

Pike County Sheriff Chief Deputy Brad Bellipanni thanked “all the law enforcement that helped us get a safe ending to this event.”