A Mount Airy, North Carolina homeowner said he had his front doors propped open Sunday evening to air out smoke from a burnt pizza when the man in the middle of a multi-state manhunt walked up onto his property. He simply asked for a bottle of water, but the homeowner knew the face. He stopped the man at his front steps.
According to FOX8 WGHP, the homeowner, John Kiley, refused to let the suspect, Michael Puckett, inside the Skyview Lane home. It happened just over two days after Puckett was accused of fatally shooting Carroll County, Virginia Sheriff’s Deputy Logan Utt during a welfare check. Puckett had been on the run since Friday night. Kiley said he recognized him as the man everyone in the area had been looking for.
Kiley went out to meet Puckett at the steps of his home and told him directly that he was not coming inside. The encounter ended without violence, thankfully, and Puckett seemingly understood what was happening with Kiley’s denial. Investigators were able to track down Puckett’s location from that point as John Kiley waved down nearby officers, saying, “… He’s right there!”
Using a drone, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation found Puckett a short time later as he was going door to door, the agency said. He was arrested at the next house, where SBI agents took him into custody as he rang the doorbell. He was armed with a handgun at the time, according to the SBI.
How the Encounter Happened
John Kiley told FOX8 WGHP that he and his wife were at home in their Skyview Lane house in Mount Airy when the man being sought by every law enforcement agency in the area walked up the path to their home. The doors of the house, Kiley said, had been propped open for a few minutes. The scent of the burnt pizza was still slowly airing out.
Kiley said he had been following news of the manhunt, recognized the man immediately as Michael Puckett, and went out to meet him at the front steps before he could come any closer. He said he told Puckett directly to stop and that he was not coming into the house.
The Shooting That Started the Manhunt
According to the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office, two of the agency’s deputies were dispatched to a residence on Fancy Gap Highway in Carroll County, Virginia, on the night of Friday, May 29, at about 9:26 p.m. The call had come from a family member who had asked for a welfare check at the home. Both deputies made contact with Michael Puckett. Puckett had opened fire on them.
Deputy Logan Utt was fatally wounded and died at the scene and the second deputy was struck in his ballistic vest and survived. Puckett fled the area on foot. Carroll County officials identified Deputy Utt as a 31-year-old husband and father, a military veteran, a Mount Airy firefighter and a 2023 hire at the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office.
The Manhunt and the Arrest
The shooting set off a multi-state manhunt that crossed the Virginia–North Carolina line and continued for more than two days, according to the SBI and the Surry County Sheriff’s Office. The SBI said the search was supported by the Surry County Sheriff’s Office, the Mount Airy Police Department, the FBI, the DEA, the ATF and the U.S. Marshals Service. A wildlife camera on Greenhill Road in Surry County captured Puckett at 6:56 a.m. on Sunday morning, the first confirmed sighting of him since the shooting. Locals were asked to watch for a shirtless man in green shorts and an orange horse blanket.
Agents using a drone were able to track Puckett moving from one residence to another on Skyview Lane in Mount Airy. Agents arrested Puckett without incident as he was ringing the doorbell at one of those homes, the agency said. He was still armed with a handgun. Puckett was booked into the Surry County Detention Center in Dobson without bond and was scheduled to appear in court.