A brazen broad-daylight attack and harrowing ordeal for a jogger ended with the arrest of a 22-year-old man chased down by Clay County deputies, Sheriff Michelle Cook announced during an Aug. 11 news conference.
"She kicked and fought, she did good," the sheriff said of the woman was able to get to a nearby home and call 911 to report being dragged into the woods by a stranger.
Cook said the woman was jogging about 10 a.m. around Tynes Boulevard in the Two Creeks area of Middleburg when she passed a man who turned around, pulled her into the woods and began to forcibly remove her clothes.
After managing to get away, a search led to a foot chase of the suspect who had also ran into another stranger's home and was jumping fences trying to elude a deputy.
However, the deputy persevered and 22-year-old Jayson Alexander-Izaak Thomas was arrested on charges of kidnapping, attempted sexual battery, burglary to an occupied dwelling and resisting without violence.
Cook lauded the 60-year-old deputy, who was "gassed" but didn't give up. She also lauded others who assisted in finding the man within a half-hour of the call. She said Tynes Elementary was put on a hold status out of an abundance of caution.
The jogger was taken to a hospital with minor injuries.
Cook said it's not related to a recent case in Jennings State Forest because the suspect's race isn't the same.
"Today was a stranger danger crime," she said and noted there could be other cases if considering how bold this one was initially out in the open.
(This is a developing story that will be updated.)
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Man arrested in brazen morning attack on jogger in Clay County
