A man who enforced the law for 16 years before he started breaking it has been declared a fugitive after violating the terms and conditions of his parole.
During his law enforcement career, 54-year-old Jimmy Leon Bohannon, Jr., served as police chief in the small Mississippi County town of Keiser. The population of Keiser in 2020 was 751.
According to court records in Mississippi County, Bohannon was arrested and charged with multiple thefts and a single drug charge. The illegal activity took place in both Keiser and Osceola.
In one of the theft cases, the owners of a residence in Keiser reported they were robbed after having to take their daughter to a hospital in Memphis.
They said they called the Keiser Police Department and asked then chief of police Bohannon to keep an eye on their home while they were out of town.
When one of the owners returned the next day to go to work, he found a rear door had been kicked open and various items missing.
Ironically, it was Bohannon who made the initial investigative visit to the home after the burglary was reported.
In that case, according to investigative records, the call to the police department had alerted Bohannon that the house would be vacant.
Other law enforcement agencies became involved and the investigation eventually led to the arrest of Bohannon and a former drug enforcement officer with the Mississippi County Sheriff’s office on residential burglary charges.
At some point, Bohannon moved to Mountain Home. He was first arrested here in January 2017 when he fled from Mountain Home police officers after a traffic stop on 8th Street.
Bohannon fled on foot, eventually running into a home on Foster Street. The owner, who was outside when pursuing MHPD officers arrived, told police the suspect they were after may have gone inside and he went into the home to check.
When Mountain Home officers entered the home, they reported seeing the resident holding Bohannon at gunpoint in a bedroom closet.
Bohannon is alleged to have asked the resident to shoot him.
He was also reported to have struck a MHPD officer in the face and forehead several time, and to have elbowed him in the eye.
Another Baxter County case against Bohannon was filed when he triggered a large-scale manhunt after walking off an inmate work detail at the Mountain Home Food Basket. The search for Bohannon involved personnel and a helicopter from the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office, officers from the Mountain Home Police Department, Arkansas State Police troopers and a K-9 tracking team from the North Central Unit of the state prison system at Calico Rock.
In light of his tendency to try to run from police and to walk off from work details, his nickname listed as “Skip” in prison seems fit him.
Bohannon was sentenced to prison on charges stemming from the traffic stop and attempted escape and battery on the MHPD officer. The state dismissed the case that was opened when he walked away from the inmate work detail.
Bohannon was reported to have cut off communication with his parole officer in Mountain Home.
He was officially listed as a fugitive Wednesday.
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