A suspicious-person call on a beachside avenue in New Smyrna Beach turned into a nearly three-hour manhunt through coastal wetlands on Wednesday night, October 28, ending when a Volusia County Sheriff's K-9 found the suspect crawling through palm fronds near the Canaveral National Seashore boat ramp — and, deputies allege, the man then fought with the dog, striking and biting it before he was restrained.
The Volusia Sheriff's Office says the incident began around 6 p.m. on October 28, when deputies responded to a report of a suspicious person along South Atlantic Avenue in New Smyrna Beach. They encountered 37-year-old Bradford Kanan sitting inside a vehicle. According to the sheriff's office, Kanan refused orders to get out of the vehicle and allegedly threatened to shoot the deputies.
From a traffic stop to a three-hour search
Kanan then drove away, according to the sheriff's office, reaching the area near the Canaveral National Seashore boat ramp, where investigators say he abandoned the vehicle and disappeared into the surrounding vegetation — wooded, marshy ground where a person can vanish within metres of a road.
Deputies launched an extensive search involving patrol officers, K-9 teams, drones and the sheriff's office helicopter, known as Air One. For nearly three hours, searchers worked the wetlands from the ground and the air. Just before 9 p.m., a police K-9 located Kanan crawling through palm fronds.
Finding him did not end the confrontation. According to the sheriff's office, Kanan became combative during his apprehension and fought with the police dog. Local television reports, citing law-enforcement accounts and body-camera footage, said he allegedly struck and bit the K-9 during the struggle. Deputies eventually restrained him and took him into custody. Body-camera footage has been released in connection with the incident.
No weapon found, and a hospital stop before jail
Investigators said Kanan had claimed to possess a weapon and threatened to shoot officers, but no weapon was recovered during the initial investigation. The suspect was transported to a hospital for medical evaluation before being taken to jail. Authorities reported that no deputies were injured during the incident.
Authorities also confirmed that Kanan had an outstanding domestic-violence warrant before Wednesday night's confrontation — meaning deputies were not dealing only with the new allegations when they took him into custody.
The charges — all allegations at this stage
According to local reporting, the charges include aggravated assault on law-enforcement officers, fleeing and eluding, resisting arrest and battery involving a police K-9. Additional allegations reported following his court appearance include battery on a law-enforcement officer and possession of drug paraphernalia. A judge subsequently ordered Kanan held without bond on two of the charges, WFTV reported. All of the charges are allegations: Kanan is presumed innocent unless and until he is proven guilty in court.
A routine suspicious-person call escalated through every layer of a modern sheriff's response — patrol, K-9, drones and a helicopter — over nearly three hours of wetland searching, and ended with the unusual allegation that a suspect bit the police dog that found him. The no-weapon-found detail and the pre-existing warrant are both part of the sheriff's office's own account.
What happens next runs through the Volusia County courts: with a no-bond hold on two charges reported by WFTV, Kanan remains in custody while the cases arising from October 28 — and the outstanding domestic-violence warrant — proceed. The sheriff's office has not announced any further search or public-safety advisory connected with the incident, and the Canaveral National Seashore boat-ramp area where the search took place is back in normal use. Awaaz Punjab will follow the court filings as dates are set.