Suspect in Wounding of Police Gives Up After 17-Day Manhunt

A fugitive who eluded police for 17 days after he allegedly wounded six officers trying to arrest him in the slayings of five drug suspects surrendered Saturday, freeing a mother and two children he had held at gunpoint.

The hunt for Larry Davis covered 48 states and included at least eight unsuccessful police raids involving hundreds of officers before a tipster on Friday led police to the fugitive, who was in a building less than two miles from the scene of the shoot-out with police Nov. 19.

Davis, 20, who reportedly had sworn never to be taken alive, kept police at bay in the top-floor apartment of a 14-story Bronx housing project for more than seven hours until negotiators on Saturday morning persuaded him to lay down his .45-caliber pistol and hold out his hands to be cuffed.

No one was injured.

“Larry Davis put down his gun, removed his jacket and shirt to prove that he was unarmed” and surrendered, Police Commissioner Benjamin Ward said. “He acted and looked exactly like a frightened 20-year-old.”

About 30 residents of neighboring buildings leaned out their windows and cheered as police led Davis away.

Police said Davis, a high school dropout and aspiring rap musician, opened fire Nov. 19 with a shotgun and a .45-caliber pistol as police tried to arrest him at his sister’s apartment. Six officers were wounded and Davis escaped.

Police said Davis was sought in connection with the killings of four suspected drug dealers in the Bronx on Oct. 30 and a fifth in Manhattan on Sept. 16.

Police said the net began to close Friday afternoon when an informer said Davis was at the apartment of another sister. Heavily armed officers arrived minutes later.

As police checked lower floors, Davis burst into a top-floor apartment and took six people hostage. He released three of them later Friday night, instructing them to call his family and bring back Chinese food, Ward said.

Police negotiators telephoned the apartment and talked with Davis, who told them he had two guns and had pulled the pin from one of two hand grenades. No grenades were found after his surrender.