Deputies arrest wanted parolee after search in downtown San Luis Obispo
A parolee wanted by state corrections officials led San Luis Obispo County sheriff’s deputies and San Luis Obispo police on an hourlong manhunt early Monday afternoon, sending heavily armed officers in tactical gear into the neighborhoods surrounding downtown San Luis Obispo.
No one was injured in the search that led to the arrest of 36-year-old Jason Michael Atkins of Cambria.
The sight of officers with guns drawn, K-9 units and a CHP helicopter circling overhead caused alarm and confusion for many during a busy Monday lunch hour.
Atkins was ultimately discovered hiding in the garage of a residence on the 600 block of Peach Street.
San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Tony Cipolla said Monday that Atkins was a wanted parolee and that sheriff’s deputies were assisting the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s Fugitive Apprehension Team in locating him.
It was not clear what he was wanted for.
Cipolla said Atkins was spotted by deputies as he was riding as a passenger in a vehicle in San Luis Obispo near Walnut and Peach streets. When deputies tried to conduct a traffic stop, Atkins allegedly ran out of the vehicle and fled on foot into a nearby neighborhood, where deputies briefly lost him.
As deputies pursued Atkins, the driver of the vehicle drove away. That driver had not been located or identified as of late Monday afternoon, Cipolla said.
Officers blocked traffic on Walnut Street from Morro to Chorro streets as they searched several apartment complexes and the backyards of homes.
Atkins was found hiding in the garage of the Peach Street residence, Cipolla said, and taken into custody without further incident.
Court records were not immediately available Monday, but past news articles show that Atkins has been the target of a local manhunt before.
For two weeks in February 2011, San Luis Obispo police officers searched for Atkins after an armed robbery near Nipomo and Marsh streets in which two men pointed a shotgun at a man and demanded money. The victim handed the two an undisclosed amount of cash, and the men drove away, according to Tribune archives.
San Luis Obispo police Lt. Bill Proll said at the time that police received information that Atkins may have been staying at the Vagabond Inn on the 200 block of Madonna Road near the Madonna Inn. When officers attempted to contact Atkins, he fled, running up the mountain behind the hotel.
Police had to cordon off the area, and a multi-agency team of officers responded, including CHP officers, a CHP K-9 unit, San Luis Obispo police detectives, a district attorney’s investigator and members of the county Narcotics Task Force.
Using binoculars, officers spotted Atkins about three-quarters of the way up the mountain hiding behind a rock. He was quickly arrested without incident.
This story was originally published March 14, 2016 at 2:21 PM with the headline "Deputies arrest wanted parolee after search in downtown San Luis Obispo."