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ELKINS - Police arrested a man who had been reported near a daycare with a firearm in the Highland Park area Thursday afternoon, and then found the gun he had allegedly been carrying.
Kasey Rhyan Stewart, 31, has been charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm, a felony. He is being held in the Tygart Valley Regional Jail on a cash-only bond of $15,000.
According to a press release from the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office, deputies were in the Highland Park area of Elkins Thursday at about 12:44 p.m. trying to locate an individual, when another call came in reporting a man with a firearm in the same area.
Deputies determined the man with the reported firearm was Stewart, the person they had been attempting to locate, the release states. They found that Stewart had allegedly fled on foot, "moving through the surrounding area and between residential properties."
According to the criminal complaint, filed by Deputy John A. Burns, deputies were searching for Stewart in the Highland Park area Thursday afternoon in order to serve a domestic violence protective order. Burns also writes that a caller said Stewart was "near a daycare attempting to pick his child up and was in possession of a weapon."
Officers located Stewart on Midland Street, where he attempted to cross into a backyard, and then jumped a stone fence and guard rail before entering the West Virginia Division of Highways parking area, where he "was taken into custody without incident," according to the release.
When Stewart was taken into custody "he no longer had a firearm in his possession," the release states. Senior Deputy Aaron Channell and K9 officer Nikki tracked the path Stewart had taken, with Nikki finding the firearm in the backyard of a residence.
In addition to the Sheriff’s Office, the Elkins Police Department, West Virginia State Police Elkins Detachment, and Randolph County EMS assisted in the response Thursday afternoon.
Anyone with further information of surveillance footage regarding this incident is urged to contact Deputy Burns with the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office.
According to the criminal complaint, Stewart pleaded guilty to malicious assault in 2015 in Raleigh County.