911 dispatcher finds fugitive while working as hotel clerk

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – An alert hotel receptionist is to thank for catching a fugitive accused of killing a couple in Tennessee and stealing their SUV.

Briana Withers said she noticed 39-year-old Bryan Cooke was acting strangely and called police. The catch is she's a police dispatcher.

Withers had no idea who the man was, but she knew something wasn't right, and one of the country's most wanted men is now in jail in Jacksonville, thanks to her quick thinking.

She said Cooke walked in with a wad of cash and sweating profusely. He said his car broke down at a Burger King and asked for a room. 

Tennessee Fugitive Bryan Cooke was located early Tuesday morning at the Hampton Inn on Jacksonville's Westside.

"Instead of asking the normal hotel question, "Do you have rooms available?" He decided to go with "I need you to help me," Withers said.

Unfortunately for Cooke, he decided to choose the one hotel with a 911 operator for the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, working the front desk.

Withers had a gut feeling that something wasn't right and called her police officers friends to check up on him. When one officer arrived, she said Cooke dialed 911 from his hotel room and then hung up.

"I took off running to the room. Knocked on it, I could hear was moaning. He wouldn't come to the door," Withers said. "He had the TV, the desk, refrigerator, whatever furniture in that room he could move was stacked all behind that door."

Firefighters came, kicked in the door and eventually got Cooke out. A short while later, police found out that Cooke was a double murder suspect from Tennessee, accused of killing a popular couple that owned a restaurant, and then stole their Jeep.

"Anybody that works for the Sheriff's Office, let's be honest, we are never off duty," Christian Hancock, with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, said.

Police are applauding Withers for her quick thinking that they said was thanks to her training.

"It is an outstanding job on her part to recognize the signs and to let somebody know about it," Hancock said.

But Withers said that she's no hero, she's just glad that she could help.

"I've gotten messages from other people giving congratulations, but honestly, there is nothing to be congratulated for. I saw something weird, made a phone call, and the officers and first responders are the ones that deserve all the thanks and credit on this one. They are the ones that went into the room and got him and ran his name," Withers said.

Withers said she was a little bit emotional after she found out that she was face to face with a dangerous double murder suspect, but she's glad she was there, and she trusted her gut that something wasn't right.