James Lewis Bice Jr. of Pell City is in the custody of Pell City police on charges of second-degree kidnapping. Sgt. Joshua Heren said Tuesday more charges may follow.
Heren, along with Frank Landon with the FBI, had been tracking Bice since Sunday night, when Heren said the 43-year-old Bice kidnapped his wife.
“He and his wife have been going through a divorce process for about two months,” Heren said. “He took her at gunpoint Sunday night from a local street in Pell City, which is just up close to Cogswell. He kept her for about 17 hours with him in his vehicle. He’d been driving around to elude us all night, through backwoods and trails.”
At about 2 p.m. Monday, Leeds police officers spotted a vehicle matching the description of Bice’s at Leeds Historic/Veterans Park, according to a release from Leeds Police Chief Ted Cook.
“Officers had received information that the suspect may be in the Leeds area,” Cook said in the release. “The suspect’s vehicle eluded officers when first spotted, but was found a short time later abandoned on the property of the Jefferson County water treatment plant at the end of Veterans Park.”
Capt. Billy Murray with the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department said Bice “had already taken his ex-wife, or his soon-to-be ex-wife, back to another person’s address.”
Authorities with the Sheriff’s Department, Moody and Pell City police converged on the scene in search of Bice. The search came up empty, however, and was called off.
As it turned out, that was just the beginning of the evening.
“A short time (after the search was called off) Pell City officers obtained information that the suspect was still in the area of the park awaiting a ride,” Cook said. “At approximately 6:30 p.m., officers from several agencies again converged on the park, this time finding the suspect. When officers confronted the suspect, he held a gun to his head threatening to shoot himself.”
Heren said Bice “just didn’t want to go to jail.”
St. Clair deputies negotiated with Bice, and officers from the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department SWAT team arrived on the scene a short time later. Cook said Bice surrendered peacefully at about 2:15 a.m.
“The suspect was turned over to Pell City detectives after being taken into custody,” Cook said.
The Leeds police chief was complimentary of the cooperation displayed in the incident.
“The peaceful conclusion to a very dangerous situation was the result of the dedication and teamwork of all the agencies and law enforcement officers involved,” he said.
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