(NewsNation) — A Louisiana man who has been on the run since being found guilty in 1991 of attempted second-degree murder has been taken into custody, the FBI New Orleans division announced Wednesday.
It was a tip received by the FBI New Orleans that finally ended the 32-year-long manhunt for Greg Lawson, 63.
After being notified that Lawson was in Mexico, agents over there and in Shreveport coordinated with FBI Headquarters and Mexican immigration authorities to arrest the former fugitive in Huatulco on Tuesday.
“We want to thank our partners and the public in this case, who never gave up hope that justice could be served for Mr. Lawson’s victim,” said Douglas A. Williams Jr., special agent in charge of FBI New Orleans. “There is no doubt that Mr. Lawson might still be in the wind if our partners in Mexico had not been willing to deal with this so swiftly.”
Lawson, who lived in Ringgold before he fled, was taken to a Louisiana jail to wait for more action by Bienville Parish authorities.
Video of Lawson posted by FBI New Orleans on Thursday night shows him being handcuffed by law enforcement and laughing.
KTBS reports Lawson was convicted in the shooting of Seth Garlington. The two men had a dispute, and Lawson forced Garlington’s vehicle off the road. Both men got into a fistfight in a gas station parking lot, KTBS wrote — and then Garlington was shot. Garlington survived what KTBS says witnesses described as “one of the biggest shootouts Ringgold has ever seen.”