A Louisiana fugitive who spent half his life on the run was arrested Tuesday in Mexico. I laughed as I watched him handcuffed more than 30 years after he was convicted of trying to murder his lifelong friend.
Greg Lawson, 63, was brought back to mainland America after a tipster reported seeing him in the resort town of Huatulco in the country’s southwest. The FBI announced.
Video showed the attempted murderer, wearing a khaki shirt and flowing green pants, smiling before he was handcuffed for the first time in 32 years.
He has been on the agency’s wanted list since May 1991, when he disappeared from the rural community of Ringgold, which has a dwindling population of 1,370 people.
Lawson was found guilty of attempted second-degree murder for attempting to shoot and kill his childhood friend in an incident remembered by the community as the largest mass shooting Ringgold had ever seen. KTBS reported.
Lawson, 31 at the time, tried to run victim Seth Garlington’s car off the road, leading to a scuffle in the gas station parking lot, where a gun was pulled.
Garlington escaped injury and Lawson was convicted, but he fled the city before the jury could reach its verdict.
The FBI has followed numerous leads and suspected sightings across the United States over the past 32 years, and in 2007 tried to revive the effort by offering a $10,000 reward for his missing person.
Finally, a solid tip and a coordinated effort with Mexican immigration authorities finally got him back behind bars.
Lawson was deported on immigration charges and escorted to Houston before being turned over to Louisiana State Police, who had been searching for him for decades.
“I want to thank our partners in this case and the public for never giving up hope that justice will be served for Mr. Lawson’s victims,” said FBI New Orleans Special Agent in Charge Douglas A. Williams Jr. statement.
“There is no question that Mr. Lawson might still be in trouble if his Mexican partners had not acted so quickly.”