Local News

Grants Pass Police arrested a man on a local warrant and added three new charges to his criminal bill after shoplifting at Fred Meyer.

According to the Police Department, officers responded to a theft complaint at the store on the Grants Pass Parkway on Friday around 2:35 p.m..

Police said 37-year-old Steven Ray Compton intentionally stole more than $156 worth of items from Fred Meyer by passing all points of sale and exiting the store without paying. Loss prevention pursued the suspect in the parking lot where he dropped the stolen items and fled on foot toward Walmart, crossing the Parkway.

Officers confronted Compton in the Carl's Jr. parking lot and he continued to flee toward Parkway Christian Center where he was cornered and placed into custody at Taser point. While in the back seat of a patrol vehicle, the suspect slipped his handcuffed arms to the front of his body and intentionally damaged the plexiglass divider between the back seat and rear cargo area.

Compton then retrieved his backpack and concealed it in the back seat. It was discovered in the sally port of the jail and the suspect advised he was trying to access an alcoholic beverage in the backpack before he was lodged.

Compton was booked into jail on a Josephine County warrant for failing to appear in court for 2nd-Degree Theft along with new charges of 2nd-Degree Theft, 2nd-Degree Criminal Mischief and 3rd-Degree Escape. He was being held without bail.