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HAMILTON COUNTY, Tenn. (TCD) — Authorities recently shot and killed a 38-year-old Georgia sex offender in Tennessee who had allegedly kidnapped a young child.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) announced Feb. 1 that 11-year-old Aubriauna Mays was last seen on Jan. 30 in the Halls area of Knox County, and they issued an endangered child alert regarding her disappearance.
According to the TBI, officials suspected Edward Ahrens, a registered violent sex offender, had abducted the girl and traveled south on Interstate 75 toward Georgia. On Feb. 2 at approximately 1 a.m., Knox County Sheriff’s Office Juvenile Detectives, members of the Technology Crimes Division and Narcotics Unit, and the Catoosa County Georgia and other local Tennessee law enforcement agencies found the suspect and missing child. They reportedly pursued the suspect’s vehicle as it drove off the interstate at Exit 1 in East Ride.
According to the Knox County sheriff’s office, Ahrens didn’t comply with authorities’ commands and allegedly intentionally struck at least three detectives. Four officers reportedly fired their guns toward Ahrens and hit him.
The suspect was transported to a local hospital and died from his injuries shortly after.
The three detectives who were hit suffered non-life-threatening injuries and were treated at the scene.
According to the TBI, the child was unharmed.
Catoosa County Sheriff Gary Sisk told WTVC-TV it was a case of a “young child being lured by a sexual predator through social media that could have ended a young girl’s life.”
Prior to his death, Ahrens was sentenced to 10 years of probation after reportedly pleading guilty in 2003 to sexual exploitation of children, four counts of aggravated assault, and two counts of obstruction of justice.
According to WTVC, Ahrens was charged with nine counts of sexual exploitation of children just five years later. He was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison but served half his sentence and was released in 2018.
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