A house painter in Tennessee was just trying to be helpful when he assisted police in capturing murder suspect Austin Drummond, who is wanted for the murder of his family.
On Tuesday, while working with a crew in Jackson, Ricardo Contreras stumbled upon what he thought was an animal in the woods near his home. “I wasn’t quite sure, but it looked off,” he explained. He and his colleagues were aware of the ongoing manhunt for Drummond, who is accused of killing four people a week prior.
“I noticed someone moving around in the trees, and he had on some sort of sweater and something over his head,” Contreras said, though he couldn’t confirm if it was Drummond. Feeling uneasy, he decided to call the police.
“It felt weird calling 911 for something like this, but I just thought, you know, they’re really trying to catch this guy,” he mentioned. “I wasn’t sure if it was him or not, but I thought it was important to report it.”
Authorities arrested Drummond about 15 minutes after Contreras informed them of the suspect’s location.
Contreras shared that the response was swift. “I was still on the line when they arrived. There were helicopters and everything—it was impressive how fast they acted,” he noted.
As a father of two young kids, he felt relieved that a dangerous person was no longer a threat. “I think we’ll sleep better tonight,” he remarked. “My kids were scared, so they’ve been sleeping with us the last few nights.”
Before his call, there had been a $37,000 reward for information leading to Drummond’s capture, but Contreras clarified he wasn’t motivated by money. “I just wanted to do the right thing,” he said.
Drummond’s arrest concluded a week-long pursuit after the tragic deaths of four individuals: Matthew Wilson, 21; Adrianna Williams, 20; Braydon Williams, 15; and Courtney Rose, 38, around 40 miles from where he was apprehended in Tiptonville on July 29.
Alongside the abandoned seven-month-old daughter of Wilson and Williams, who was found safe, authorities are still piecing together a motive, suspecting that these killings were not random.
Surveillance footage captured Drummond wearing camouflage and carrying a rifle in Jackson the night before his arrest, prompting concerns about his intentions.
Additionally, three individuals connected to Drummond—Della Sanders, 23; Tanaka Brown, 29; and Jovonty Thomas, 29—have been arrested as accessories after the fact of first-degree murder, with Brown facing further charges for tampering with evidence.
Drummond, previously convicted of aggravated robbery, had just completed a 13-year sentence last September. At the time of these latest crimes, he was out on bail for an attempted murder accusation.
He now faces ten charges, including first-degree murder and possession of a firearm as a felon.
