A 31-year-old Columbia man is facing three felony charges following a traffic stop, two search warrants and a manhunt that lasted several hours before he was found lying down in the woods.
On July 2, the Columbia Police Department initiated a traffic stop on Danny Gales. The sheriff’s office had an ongoing narcotics investigation on Gales, who also had an outstanding warrant from the Mississippi Department of Corrections. 
After he was transported to the Marion County Regional Correctional Facility, Gales had to be transferred to the hospital then airlifted to another hospital for a medical emergency. Following his release from the hospital, he was back to being at large.
“While he was at the hospital, due to the sheriff’s office’s investigation, a search warrant was served at his residence where methamphetamine and firearms were found during that search,” MCSO Capt. Pete Williams said.
On July 11, Williams attempted to serve the active arrest warrants on Gales on both the charges from the search warrant and the MDOC warrant. Williams said he observed a vehicle known to be associated with Gales and called for additional deputies.
By the time the deputies were able to converge on the area where the vehicle was located, it was no longer there. Deputies saturated the area until Williams located the vehicle at a convenience store at the intersection of Game Reserve and Columbia-Purvis roads. When Williams drove into the parking lot, Gales fled on foot into the woods.
After a perimeter was established, deputies then started to search the woods. A few hours into the search, Investigator Brent Sandifer and Deputy Kopen Nightingale found Gales lying down near a residence close to the store, and he was taken into custody without further incident.
Gales has been charged with felony possession of a Schedule I-II controlled substance, enhanced penalty of possession of a controlled substance while in possession of a firearm and possession of a firearm as a convicted felon.
His total bond has been set at $35,000, and he remained in jail as of press time Tuesday.
