WASHINGTON – Nearly 11,000 sex offenders, gang members and other fugitives were swept up in what the Justice Department yesterday called a sting targeting the “worst of the worst” criminals on the run.
Last week's roundup, led by the U.S. Marshals Service, included Allen Marksberry, an unregistered sex offender in Rickman, Tenn., who was baby-sitting several young children when he was arrested.
Also nabbed were Demetrius Avery Jackson, accused of killing a police officer in Birmingham, Ala., and Eric Dewayne Meneese, a Crips gang member, in Nashville, Tenn.
The weeklong sting, code-named Operation Falcon III, also led to the shooting death of a Georgia fugitive who was killed by authorities as he came out of his house, officials said. Additionally, the neighbor of a fugitive in Florida fired – but missed – police approaching her home. Both incidents are under investigation, said John F. Clark, director of the Marshals Service.
The roundup, in 24 states east of the Mississippi River, targeted “the worst of the worst fugitive felons in the country,” Attorney General Albert Gonzales said at a Washington news conference.
Two earlier stings – Falcons I and II – were held in April during the past two years. Gonzales and Clark denied that next week's elections played any part in scheduling the latest crackdown.
“I can assure you that the coordination of getting 3,000-plus officers and agents, and everybody together to do this, just takes a lot of coordination,” Clark said. He said he wanted to do the roundup in the fall – before the winter weather hit.
In all, Gonzales said officials caught 10,773 fugitives – including 1,659 sex offenders, 364 gang members and thousands of others sought on kidnapping, robbery, burglary, carjacking and weapons charges.
