‘Thrill of the hunt’

By Mary Wade Burnside
Times West Virginian

FAIRMONT July 07, 2009 12:41 am

— Mention the work of a Deputy U.S. Marshal and one might think it’s a cliche to immediately conjure Tommy Lee Jones’ Samuel Gerard hunting down Harrison Ford’s Richard Kimble in “The Fugitive.”
But to listen to Alex Neville, Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal based out of West Virginia’s Northern District in Clarksburg, that kind of image is what drew him to his 17-year career.
“Fugitives — the apprehension of fugitives,” Neville said. “That’s one of our main, core duties. We run the federal fugitive apprehension program. The cracking down of a wanted man or woman or the apprehension of that person really is what drew me to the agency.”
Neville, a native of Barrackville, recites Ernest Hemingway on the matter: “... There is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it never really care for anything else thereafter.”
“There is the thrill of the hunt and knowing that subject is wanted,” Neville said. “They know they are wanted. They are trying to elude capture, that game of cat and mouse.
“It’s a chess game. They have to be good 365 days a year. We only have to be good one time. The thrill of the hunt is what I enjoy.”
Just last week, Neville’s office closed in on a convicted felon out on bond who was supposed to be in Indiana. When officials realized he was not reporting in, they interviewed friends and determined the convict was in Pittsburgh.

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