Tumalo manhunt ends in Redmond fugitive’s capture

A Redmond fugitive wanted for parole violation ran from a Tumalo bar just before Deschutes County sheriff”s deputies arrived Friday afternoon, triggering a public alert and nearly four-hour manhunt that employed two K-9 teams and a drone, leading to his surrender and arrest.

Deputies were helping Bend police around 2:45 p.m. with a traffic stop in the Tumalo area when they learned Ryan Nathaniel Fischer-Salt, 38, was at a nearby bar, Sgt. Kent Vander Kamp said.

Fischer-Salt was known to have an outstanding statewide felony parole violation warrant after he ran from an unrelated traffic stop Thursday night in Redmond, Vander Kamp he said.

Deputies converged on the Tumalo Tavern on Strickler Avenue and learned he’d fled the bar just before they arrived, deputies said.

K-9 Ezel and partner Deputy Jeremiah Johnson began tracking Fischer-Salt around the southern Tumalo area, Meanwhile, 911 deployed the Deschutes Alert System to alert nearby residents about the manhunt, and area residents called 911 to report his movements, Vander Kamp said.

Deputies and detectives, joined by Bend Police officers and Oregon State Police troopers, established a search perimeter to contain the fugitive, while Cascade Academy’s nearby summer camp was placed on lockdown briefly while officers moved through the area.

Vander Kamp said deputies believed Fischer-Salt remained in the area and that law enforcement had him contained. At one point, K-9 Brolo and partner Deputy Keith Slater were called into assist, allowing Ezel to cool down and rest in the hot weather, the sergeant said.

Around 5:30 p.m., Fischer-Salt was spotted crossing U.S. Highway 20 near the Old Bend-Redmond Highway.

Deputies surrounded the area while the two K-9s and their handlers worked in coordination to converge on Fischer-Salt’s location, with the help of the sheriff’s office unmanned aerial vehicle (drone).

As the K-9 teams approached the same spot, Fischer-Salt emerged from a hillside and surrendered around 6:30 p.m. to Brolo and deputies on one side of the Deschutes River, then walked across the shallow river to other waiting deputies, where he was taken into custody without incident.

Fischer-Salt was taken later to the county jail and held without bail on the parole violation warrant.

Fischer-Salt has a lengthy criminal history.

In December 2010, Fischer-Salt was arrested after running from deputies in Redmond who tried to stop a car with expired registration tags. A Redmond police dog helped officers find him hiding in a nearby utility trailer. He was arrested on DUII, felon in possession of a firearm and other charges.

In 2013, deputies arrested Fischer-Salt at a La Pine-area residence, accusing him of kicking in the door of the agency’s shooting range, vandalizing it and stealing 26 bulletproof vests. He pleaded guilty in the fall of 2014 to burglary, theft, felon in possession of body armor and tampering with a witness, and was sentence to 18 months in prison.

Fischer-Salt was arrested in January 2017 on charges he stole a car, then a pickup in Redmond, leading police on a chase that ended after spike strips were used to deflate the tires. Police said Fischer-Salt tried to run but was caught with the help of a K-9 and his handler.

In late 2017, Fischer-Salt pleaded guilty to car theft, recklessly endangering another person and criminal mischief and received a 20-month prison term, as well as a driver’s license revocation until Oct. 31, 2018, court records show.