He asked to kiss his wife before going to jail. Then he ran out of a Lucedale courtroom.

A man who fled to avoid arrest six years ago has done it again — this time, from a courtroom.

But this time, he didn't know he'd be chased on foot by a runner, a triathlete in a suit and tie and otherwise known as George County Circuit Clerk Chad Welford.

John Samuel Bond was wanted on an outstanding warrant on a grand larceny charge.

Bond, 26, was in circuit court Thursday morning when Judge Robert Krebs ordered him taken into custody. Bond asked the judge to let him kiss his wife before deputies took him away. Krebs gave permission.

Bond walked into the courtroom audience and was about to hug his wife.

"He bolted right out the back door," said Welford, who was in the courtroom on official business. The back door is a few steps from courtroom seating.

And so it was that a brief chase ensued on foot for Bond, who had run from Wiggins police in a vehicle in 2012, when an officer fired shots in efforts to stop him.

Welford decided to chase after Bond on Thursday morning along with deputies. Welford said he is "in pretty good shape" because he is in training for the Half Ironman in Atlanta. The Half Ironman 70.3 refers to the total distance of miles covered by competitors, who must swim 1.2 miles, bike 56 miles and run 13.10 miles.

Bond ran through the parking lot and inevitably headed toward the Lucedale Police Department, where officers who heard the alert ran toward the area at least a quarter of a mile from the courthouse.

"I just ran behind him until he couldn't run anymore," Welford said. "He ran out of gas. It was pretty funny.

"He ran into bushes and had nowhere else to go. He was tired out," Welford added.

"I stood there and kept an eye on him until an officer came up," he said. "The officer detained him and held him for the sheriff's department."

Deputies also arrested Bond on a charge of resisting arrest and fleeing.

Bond had fled from a Wiggins police officer in a high-profile pursuit in September 2012, according to a Stone County Enterprise report. Bond had been released from jail a week earlier when an officer tried to pull him over for having a blown headlight.

At one point in the chase, Bond reportedly turned his vehicle around, aimed it at the officer and tried to strike him.

The Wiggins police officer fired seven shots, six of which struck Bond's vehicle, the Enterprise reported. Officers lost sight of the vehicle until someone called in a tip about seeing a "shot up" vehicle.

This story was originally published June 28, 2018 at 11:55 AM.