By DON FLETCHER
News Staff Writer
The following felony arrests were reported by officers of the Atmore Police Department during the period September 14-19:
Vincent Love
Sasha Mashburn
A Georgia woman and a Tennessee man were arrested September 17 on felony drug possession charges after they were found sleeping in their vehicle in the parking lot of a closed business.
Police reports show that an officer noticed the vehicle “backed up to the building” around 4:35 a.m. and investigated the situation. The occupants, later identified as Sasha Mashburn, 32, of Dewy Rose, Ga. and 32-year-old Vincent Love of Tazewell, Tenn., were asleep inside the vehicle.
The APD officer also noticed “drug paraphernalia in plain view,” so he woke the two and detained them while a probable cause search of the vehicle was conducted. The search yielded more than 20 grams of a substance that field-tested positive for methamphetamine, as well as a small amount of marijuana, a digital scale, a glass pipe that contained meth residue, and a handgun.
Mashburn was charged with one count each of unlawful distribution of controlled substance, being a certain persons forbidden to possess a firearm, second-degree possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia. She remained in the Escambia County Detention Center (ECDC) Tuesday morning, September 24.
Love, who is charged with possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia, was released on bond a few hours after the arrest. No mug shot of the Tennessee man was available.
Emmanuel Banks
An Atmore man was arrested September 19 after police were sent to a city residence at which a domestic disturbance was reported.
As officers responded, around 3:45 p.m., they were notified that the party who was causing the disturbance was leaving the scene. Witnesses provided a description of the vehicle, and it was stopped a short time later on West Nashville Avenue.
The officer contacted the driver, Emmanuel Banks, 40, and noted that Banks seemed “extremely agitated, possibly under the influence, and was not complying with the officer’s instructions.”
Banks was detained while a K9 team was called to the scene. When the dog “alerted” on the vehicle, a search was conducted. Police found “a small amount of a crystal-like substance that field-tested positive for methamphetamine, a small amount of marijuana, and items used to ingest narcotics.”
He was arrested on one count each of possession of a controlled substance, second-degree possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia and was processed into the ECDC, from which he was released over the past weekend.
The investigation into the disturbance revealed the incident was “a heated argument and physical altercation occurred.”
John Dixon
A 59-year-old Atmore man was arrested September 19 after he pulled up to a driver’s license checkpoint being conducted by Alabama State Troopers and local police, with illicit substances in plain view inside his vehicle.
The arrest occurred around 10:10 p.m. after John Dixon reached the Jack Springs Road checkpoint, where an APD officer observed narcotics “in plain view,” and requested that Dixon get out of the vehicle so that a probable cause search could be conducted.
Dixon refused to get out of the vehicle, and a brief struggle ensued before the policeman gained control of the suspect.
Almost 12 grams of a substance that field-tested positive for crack cocaine was found in the vehicle, as were more than five grams of synthetic cannabis (Spice), and “other items that are (used) to ingest narcotics.”
Dixon was released from jail over the past weekend. He is charged with two counts of possession of a controlled substance and one count each of possession of drug paraphernalia and resisting arrest. The jail website did not include a mug shot of Dixon.