Brandon Goggins manhunt ends: run down by residents, Jeremy Griffin and Jessica Weightman

After a massive two-day manhunt which included helicopters, K-9s, and dozens of police, the 30-year-old Brandon Goggins finally was apprehended Friday morning.

Goggins showed up on Jessica Weightman’s family farm right across from Safety Town, the area where deputies were focusing. He’d spent some of the night in the swamp across the road.

The property owners said they ran into Goggins Friday morning and called 911.

“He had scratches up and down his body, he was covered in mud, had a walking stick with him,” Jessica told reporters. “I asked who he was; he said his name was Chris,” she continued.  “I told him he was on private property he needed to leave.”

Brandon Goggins
Brandon Goggins

Weightman’s brother Jeremy Griffin chased Goggins after realizing who he was. “He stopped and ran off into the woods,” said Jeremy. “I jumped out of my truck, gave chase through the woods on foot, chased him through the woods from 52 to here.”

“[It was] adrenaline, just making sure you got him,” he explained.  “There he is; we got him.”

In the end, not a single shot was fired even though deputies had said Goggins told his girlfriend he wouldn’t go down without a gunfight.

“He’s running his mouth bragging, saying he was much smarter than us,” Sheriff Chris Nocco said after Goggins was back in custody and being treated for exhaustion.  “He’s in handcuffs. It didn’t work out well for him.”

” I can tell you during the search last night, the terrain was very, very bad. It was not just a swamp, it was a thick muck that our members were getting stuck in, “added Nocco.

The sheriff praised his deputies and a New Port Richey Police officer for taking Goggins into custody without firing a shot. “He’s lucky the moccasins didn’t get him, the alligators didn’t get him. I mean he’s very fortunate he made it out with all of his limbs,” said Nocco.

 

 

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