Albany fugitive caught after manhunt NE of Redmond

A 20-year-old fugitive from Albany struck and kicked a Deschutes County sheriff’s deputy trying to arrest him northeast of Redmond, then ran away early Monday morning, prompting an extensive manhunt, deputies said. A citizen tip led to the man’s capture later in the morning.

The deputy was conducting a runaway juvenile investigation around 5:30 a.m. near the intersection of Northeast 33rd Street and O’Neil Highway when he encountered the man, Sonny Allen Agrelius, who was wanted on warrants out of Linn and Clackamas counties, sheriff’s Sgt. Aaron Harding said.

As the deputy tried to arrest Agrelius, he allegedly struck and kicked the deputy, than ran toward the west, Harding said.

Several more deputies, as well as Redmond police officers and Oregon State Police troopers, responded to the area, along with a sherif’s office K-9 team, but efforts to find Agrelius initially were unsuccessful.

The deputy was not injured in the encounter, Harding added.

OSP troopers and sheriff’s deputies arrested Agrelius shortly before 11 a.m. after a citizen reported seeing a suspicious subject in the same area, Harding said.

Online court records show a warrant was issued for Agrelius last September in Clackamas County after he failed to appear in court for arraignment on a second-degree theft charge. He had been booked into the Deschutes County Jail last August on the Clackamas County warrant, a jail officer said.

Agrelius also was convicted last July of unauthorized use of a vehicle in Linn County and sentenced to 18 months probation and a one-year driver’s license suspension.