Felony Drug Suspect Rescued by MNPD Officers & NFD Personnel Early Saturday After Diving from Bridge into Browns Creek

What started out as a vehicular burglary investigation early today outside 175 Lafayette Street led to officers climbing down into Browns Creek to perform a critical rescue of a criminal suspect who injured himself after diving off a bridge in his attempt to avoid apprehension.

When Officer Wyatt Parcel arrived to the dispatched call of auto burglaries in progress, he saw a man matching the suspect's description in the parking lot. Upon seeing the officer's patrol car, the man attempted to conceal himself and quickly got into the driver's seat of a nearby car. As Officer Parcel drove toward the vehicle, the man quickly exited and began walking away. The officer tried to engage the man, who ignored commands to stop and ran away. He fled across the road to a bridge over Browns creek where he dove into the shallow water, seriously injuring himself.

Officers Parcel, William Hudson and Dylan Mercado descended the steep terrain on the opposite side of the bridge, their only accessible route to reach the man, to take him into custody and render aid. The officers waded through thigh-deep water in 30-degree weather to reach him. They pulled him from the water and onto the bank and remained with him for nearly an hour while the Nashville Fire Department set up a hoist mechanism to bring him back to the top of the bridge.

The man was identified as convicted drug felon Darryn Carter, 31, who had four outstanding local arrest warrants (for failure to appear in court on gun possession charges) and one outstanding probation violation warrant from Mississippi. Carter was transported to Vanderbilt University Medical Center for treatment of leg fractures, facial fractures and a collapsed lung. A search of his car on Lafayette Street led to the recovery of a Glock pistol with an extended magazine, a rifle magazine containing 25 rounds of ammunition, 2.8 pounds of marijuana, 3 grams of a white powder, digital scales and plastic baggies.

Upon his discharge from the hospital, Carter will be arrested on the outstanding warrants as well as new charges of gun possession by a convicted felon, marijuana possession for resale, fentanyl possession for resale, evading arrest, and possession of drug paraphernalia.

No officers were injured in the rescue of Carter from the creek.