Manhunt For Mass Murder Suspect Austin Drummond Broke Out In My Neighborhood: A Family Man's Experience

Monday, August 4, started like any other Monday. I woke up to my alarm as the sun was rising, let the dog out, grabbed my first of many cups of coffee, and sat down at my desk to begin another week of writing about sports for a living. 

Life was good. My only concerns at that point were getting started on a story before my toddler across the hall woke up, and how my wife and I would juggle working and having him at home for a few days before the new school year was set to start.

After a routine morning, my wife and kiddo jumped into the car to return some library books. A minute later, I got a call. 

"There is an unmarked cop car at the end of the street. An officer is standing in front of it with a rifle in hand. We're coming back home."

All of a sudden, the concern of two parents went from balancing work and a toddler to questioning if we were safe in our incredibly quiet, family-filled neighborhood.

We'd later find out that the answer to that question was a resounding no.

Austin Drummond Walking Our Streets

By Monday morning, the Austin Drummond story was on everyone's radar in Jackson, Tenn. The public was aware that Drummond was identified as the suspect in the quadruple homicide in nearby Dyer County on Thursday, July 31, and that he had ties to Jackson, but things got far more serious the following day when his car was found in town.

With Drummond ditching his car and it being widely reported that he had heavy gang ties, it was easy to form the opinion that he had left town with some help. Authorities did state that he was believed to still be in the area over the weekend, but if he did decide to stay in town, he surely wouldn't make his way to the heavily populated and commercialized north side of town.

That officer holding a rifle at the entrance of my neighborhood on Monday morning told a different story, and it turned into the correct and terrifyingly personal one.

It was a little after 10 AM that Monday morning, maybe an hour after the library trip was cut short, when helicopters began circling overhead and dozens of law enforcement personnel essentially made camp in the parking lot of West Jackson Baptist Church, about a mile from my front door. Reports then came out that they were set to start a search in a wooded area across the street from Union University, a Christian school located just behind the church.

That wooded area has a collection of walking trails that my son loves to explore. Realization quickly set in that my two-year-old and I had walked the same trails the previous weekend that a mass murder suspect was potentially using to hide himself.

Is There A Killer In My Backyard?

When you're close enough to the search area that you can not only hear, but actually see the helicopters circling above, and there is an armed officer guarding your neighborhood entrance, it doesn't take long for bad thoughts to creep into your mind.

What if he's in the woods that surround our cove? What if he's hiding in the neighbor's shed? What if he's in our shed? He could easily be hiding in that barn around the corner. What am I going to do if I see him walk up my driveway?

I didn't want to find the answers to any of those questions, so we quickly jumped in the car and made our way to my parents' place on the other side of town, albeit on an alternative route with different road closures around us.

After authorities spent hours searching the area and sweeping an apartment complex just off of Union's campus, things got quiet. Helicopters left the area, and law enforcement peeled out of the church's parking lot. 

Then came the chilling videos of Drummond from the previous night that led to the search in the area on Monday morning.

The first video that was shared showed Drummond walking across a person's driveway located just across the street from the church parking lot, where law enforcement convened. The short clip was captured just past 4:30 AM on Monday.

The first video left room for speculation about whether he was walking around armed, but Drummond was proudly showing off his firearm in the second video, which was taken from multiple security cameras at Cornerstone Community Church.

Cornerstone is a few hundred yards down the road from where Drummond was seen in the first video, and a few hundred yards closer to my front door.

The video of Drummond circling Cornerstone was timestamped at 11:18 PM on Sunday night, meaning he was likely just roaming the area, perhaps going door-to-door for hours on Sunday night and into Monday morning.

To say my family and I were happy we left the area when we did would be an understatement. Not having to attempt to sleep within a mile of where Drummond was casually walking around with a killing machine the morning before was a blessing.

Based on where he was captured alive in the Windwood Hills neighborhood just after 9 AM on Tuesday, Drummond never left the area, and technically got even closer to my home before authorities were able to end the manhunt.

The hug my wife and I shared with our son seconds after I shouted "they got him" from upstairs was one of our tighter ones.

Back to law enforcement. The fact that the authorities were able to capture Drummond alive is truly unbelievable. This is a guy who had the definition of nothing left to live for, who gave off the perception that he was ready for a fight, and now the authorities will get to question him and hopefully find a sliver of justice for the families he allegedly ripped apart.

My family's experience during the incredibly nerve-wracking 24 hours or so isn't unique - plenty of other families lived through a very similar experience - and none of them come close to what the families of the lives lost in this situation will continue to deal with in the days, months, and years ahead.