LA VERGNE, Tenn. (WTVF) — The search for attempted murderer John Drake Jr. started more than 72 hours ago in La Vergne's Lake Forest community. Police don't appear to be looking in that area anymore — which raises the question: where's the search focused now?
The 38-year-old is accused of shooting two La Vergne police officers.
NewsChannel 5 talked to former Metro Police Officer turned private detective Robert Young. Young's company is called Covert Results.
Young explained why the search team may have moved away from La Vergne.
"If he has no ties to that general area, that could be another reason they're not setting up shop [or] a tent... camping out in a parking lot," said Young. "Or they could have a tip he's already out of an area."
This search hasn't looked like searches for other people who have hurt or killed local law enforcement.
In 2018, Steven Wiggins killed a Sergeant with the Dickson County Sheriff's Office. Law enforcement flooded the area near the scene of the crime. In two days, Wiggins was captured.
A few years earlier, schools in Cumberland County, Kentucky shut down for days to keep people in the community safe during the search for Floyd Cook who shot a police officer.
Three days later, Young said it is not unheard of for police not to be saturating the area where the person got away.
"Typically what I've seen is they'll run, they'll have their phone on them, call someone... a close family member [or] a girlfriend or boyfriend and they're going to have them come pick them up. This is likely what we have in this situation, someone is protecting him, and they need to give him up because the police are not going to stop trying before he's behind bars quickly," Young said.
Drake happens to be the estranged son of Chief John Drake of the Metro Nashville Police Department.
The private detective added he feels confident that nothing will be done differently in this search despite the connection to Chief John Drake.
"The police don't care about the relationship, especially La Vergne. He shot two of their own; they're going to be going hard," he said.
