Wanted man can’t hide from K-9 Blitz

Published on November 5, 2017

A K-9 with the Shasta County Sheriff’s Department helped find a man wanted on felony warrants Saturday in the Cottonwood area.

Deputies were looking for Luis Javier Ayala, 36, about 3:30 p.m. Saturday. Ayala had failed to appear for sentencing and had four warrants out for his arrest along with a misdemeanor warrant, the sheriff’s office said.

They spotted him at Main and Third streets, but he got away by running toward Brush Street. Officers thought he was hiding in a home’s backyard on Brush Street and asked for help from Anderson and the California Highway Patrol helicopter.

That’s when Shasta County sheriff’s deputy Tim Estes and his K-9 partner, Blitz, arrived where a perimeter had been set up. Blitz tracked down Ayala in the home’s backyard and apprehended him, deputies said.

Ayala had to be taken to the hospital for treatment and was booked into Shasta County Jail on the warrants and suspicion of resisting arrest, deputies said.