Good afternoon. I'm Sheriff
Dewayne Lewis of Berkeley Count.
I just want to give you a quick
update on this manhunt that we e
going on as we speak right now n
the Francis Mayor National Fore.
Behind me, Sheriff Graziano,
Chris Garrett from the FBI,
and Steve Jensen,
who's the Special Agent in chare
of the FBI here out of Charlest.
We have a collaborative team that's working.
I have over 100.
Law enforcement officers from al
over the low country that are h,
and I'll give you some of
those those names shortly,
but that approximately 11:11
AM this morning Berkeley County
Sheriff's deputies encountered a
suspicious suspect on a bicyclee
had received a call from on Haly
Creek Road near Southampton Rd.
That the individual Max the description.
Michael Burham,
who is wanted that I know
y'all are all familiar with.
My sheriff's deputies
had him on the side of the road.
They were asking questions.
He was being real evasive and at
that point they determined thate
was actually the suspect that al
the law enforcement agencies in
the Low Country are looking for.
We had a brief.
Foot pursuit with him in the
woods here and the Francis Mayor
of National Forest at one point
we did deploy at the Taser.
He did escape from from the immediate area.
So we have since brought in all
the assets that that the FBI
sled North Charleston,
Charleston County Sheriff's Office and
the list goes on, I'll tell you that.
He was. He's a white male,
age 35, five foot nine, £150.
He was last seen wearing blue
shorts and a Gray shirt.
He is in the wooded area in
that general area right now,
murder out of Jamestown, NY,
sexual assault out of New York, and two
victims of kidnapping in Pennsylvania.
Y'all are familiar with the sto.
The victims in the the kidnappig
was dropped off in North Charle,
which is where we received the
information that he may be in the area.
So I'm asking the public to be n
the lookout for this considered
armed and dangerous individual.
Right now he was last seen in
the area of Halfway Creek Rd.
and Southampton Drive.
So if y'all know anything about
the Francis Mayor National Fore,
it's a large area and we
have a lot of assets here.
We're not stopping.
We're going to keep on going.
We got command post set up,
we have air assets from Charlesn
County Sheriff's Office SLED is also.
I brought their helicopter down here.
The FBI is sending another teamh
air assets for us and we have again a
lot of people on the ground out here.
We're we are getting ready to sd
out through reverse 911 to all e
cell phones and public phones within a
five mile radius of this incident location.
So when you see that on your ph,
you know what it's about.
If if anybody sees this individ,
if they get a phone call or anyg
from anybody about his whereabo,
please call us.
I'm asking the public to call one 800,
call FBI.
That's a a number that's been set up,
it's easy to remember and we
will gladly be happy to have tht
information for any of the othe.
Information.
I'll ask my friends here at the
FBI if they want to say anything
before you can. I ask one thing
before you go about the the
encounter figures that
did they get body Cam, dash Cam.
Is there any video of this?
Yes, there's body Cam and we're
we're having trouble downloadint
because we're in a remote locat.
So we're working on that as we speak.
Hope to get that to you as well.
But the photographs that the FBI
has and all the law enforcement
agencies have is is is fairly spot on.
He does have more facial hair than he does
in that earlier picture that you have.
So we're we're going to be talkg
about releasing that latest picture I
think here in just a little while but as
soon as I can get the the the body Cam.
Video I'll get it to
you and share a quick question.
Do you know why the deputies dit
put him and puffs or searching
when they encountered him?
Well and immediately When they encountered
him they were only operating off
a reasonable suspicion and he ge
a false name and a date of birt.
While they were looking that
information up on the computer.
The Sergeant drove up and had te
photograph on his phone and made
that made that identification a.
Before they could put hands on ,
he took off.
Why do you think he is armed?
Did they have it? Did he pull
a gun out or was there any?
Did they see a gun on his body?
We we had information from the
FBI that he was armed at some of
these crimes that he's committe.
So we are considering that and we have
not recovered A firearm for air assets.
Is there any type of like a thel
imaging being deployed to try te
if he's in the woods in the are?
Everything we have is being
deployed from the Sheriff's Off,
from Charleston County, SLED, F.
All of our assets are out here.
And sheriff, you have a list of
agencies that responded so far to help?
Yes. So Berkeley County,
Charleston County Sheriff's Off,
North Charleston Police,
Mount Pleasant, Sled, FBIUS Marshals,
probation and parole.
Department of Natural Resources has a lot
of assets on the ground for Somerville PD,
and Charleston City PD is also e
and there may be some more comin
that I don't even know about ye.
All right, good afternoon.
As the sheriff mentioned,
it is an active fugitive investigation.
And just a reminder to the publc
that fugitive cases are unpredictable
because of the nature of the fugitive.
A reminder that he is considered armed
and dangerous based on information we
had from the Vic
kidnapping that he
he's not still armed and if the
public sees him not to approachm
but to notify law enforcement by
either calling 911 or one 800 c,
FBI and law enforcement
will respond appropriately.
An additional note,
any additional press briefings
will come from either the sherif
or myself for any updates to the
status of this investigation,
and I think the sheriff is.
Any statements that he's not
going to go back to jail or any threatening
statements as he's been on the Broad.
The only overt contact that I'm aware of was
with the sheriff's deputies whee
he gave an alleged false name
and then when confronted took of
running which resulted in this manner.
Did they find his backpack
and his ID? I believe
there were items left behind tht
law enforcement is currently
processing. The status is
still under investigation.
How long has the FBI been
searching for Mr. Burnham?
I'm aware of a few days and I believe two
days ago we pushed out the first
public awareness notification of
his status as a fugitive in this
area. Do we know he has survivalist skills?
Is he, is he considered a survivalist?
I couldn't speak to that. Do
we know why specifically he
came to the Charleston area?
That's still under investigation as well.
I think the things that that
I can speak to is that, again,
he is a fugitive from justice.
He's in a very remote area.
In heavily wooded and not
very well populated area.
So the fact that he could be
disoriented very quickly and
knowing that he's running from
the police could be desperate,
which poses a greater danger to the public.
So again, a cautionary statement
not to approach this man but to
notify law enforcement immediat.
Can you tell us more
about this kidnapping?
Who did? Who did he kidnap?
Why did he let him go?
What do we know so far about
I can at this point other
than the victims were released
unharmed and they immediately
reported it to law enforcement.
And nature of the kidnapping
is still under investigation,
both from the location where
they were kidnapped in,
in the immediate area where they
were released by their kidnap.
Can you spell
your first and last name for
the record, please? Absolutely.
I'm Stephen Jensen Jensen,
Special Agent in Charge
of the FBI in Columbia.
And I think that's all the information
I have for today at Sheriff.
Anything else to add?
All future briefings will coorde
through the Sheriff's Office
for you. Thank you. Anything
else? Y'all. Well, do we expect
to have more briefings here?
I mean do we need to be sending people to.
Yeah, Carly will be coordinating all of that.
If we have anything you know
we'll we'll be happy to tell yo.
I mean we're we're on the ground
we're doing everything but we de
know if it's going to be right e
at the same location I'm going e
count on that. It's possible but
I'm not 100% sure at this point.
Y'all know me, I I I'll brief y'all a lot.
I'll try to give y'all as much information
as I can when I can. But listen, we're
we're in the middle of this manhunt for
this fugitive and everything we've got,
we're putting into it.
And I just want to ask the
public be on the lookout.
Anybody that's went within, you know,
10 mile radius of this area,
if you see anything, it doesn't
matter if it's tonight or or whenever.
Please don't hesitate and think
that it doesn't matter. It's
probably not the guy we
need to hear from you.
Again it he is in a wooded area,
a very large wooded area and we
think we have him contained to
that area right now. But again,
anybody that sees him, please cl
us immediately and anybody
with any information
can call that one 800FBI line.
Can you also just explain like w
big the search area is do we hae
like a square mileage that of you got
of what area you guys are searc.
I think right now we're probably
we're we're in a probably what
5-5 mile radius right now what e
what we prefer to do is stretcht
out as far as manpower will allow and
then bring it in as as you knows
necessary.
So we think we got we have a.
Very good perimeter.
We got it set up very quickly.
Sleds helicopter
came in relatively quick and thn
Sheriff Graziano's folks flew in behind them.
So we're keeping that moving.
Again, it's a fluid situation and and
we just wanted to let the public know
in this general area what's goig
on. We still haven't learned
anything about the homicide.
Why? You know what the
motive was for the homicide.
Or information about whether ort
these kidnapping victims were injured.
Can you just fill us in a
little bit more on this,
which really wants to know whats
homicide was about as far as Y'l
can can give us any kind of mot,
any kind of information? Yeah,
I'm going to be able to commentd
I think they've they've answered
that as best they're going to
answer it for now because it isn
ongoing investigation. I I'm no,
I don't have any information ab.
The the crime scenes or the victims or
or what occurred I'm I'm telling you I'm
here because the suspect we encountered
him and we're
just trying to catch you. Can yu
fill us in on anymore with the kidnapping
victims whether or not they were injured.
So I already stated once the the
kidnapping victims were released
without injury the the nature oe
kidnapping is still under investigation.
Some more details won't be
forthcoming at this point. And
as far as the original charges
on the homicide, that's handled
by a local Police Department out
of our Buffalo field office. We
were notified that the fugitived
the area, fugitive fled the area
and we engaged to obtain a warr,
a federal warrant for unlawful
flight to avoid prosecution.
That's when the FBI became invo.
Those are the charges that we
were initially looking at him
for and trying to locate him.
And then subsequent to that,
we found out that he arrived ins
area with the two kidnapping victims.
And then fled from the sheriff's
deputies later today.
Thank you all.
Appreciate it.
Thank you.