For Immediate Release

Pensacola, FL – The U.S. Marshals Florida Regional Fugitive Task Force and the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office SWAT Team arrested a fugitive early this morning wanted as the suspect in an attempted murder of a Pensacola man at a motel in Pensacola last year. Michael Joe Green, 35, has been on the run from authorities after he allegedly shot 29 year old Jeffrey Watson in the head at the Red Roof Inn on Plantation Road on May 10 of 2009. The Task Force adopted the case from Escambia County last year and has been tracking leads in Pensacola, Texas and Georgia. At about 6 a.m., the ECSO SWAT Team assisted by the Escambia County Narcotics Unit, U.S. Marshals and Task Force Officers from Escambia and Santa Rosa Sheriff’s Offices knocked on a door at 9443 Sunnehanna Blvd., at the Woodlands Apartment building in search for Green. A woman answered from inside the apartment when it appeared she thought it may have been a friend outside. When officers identified themselves as the police the woman became quiet and stopped talking to them. The officers didn’t leave and eventually around 8 o’clock a woman came out of the apartment. Officers then went in and arrested Green without further incident. The woman, identified as Coya Rome was briefly detained and then released without being charged. The Escambia County warrant charges Green with one count of Attempted Homicide and has a $100,000 bond on it. Green was brought to the Sheriff’s Office and interviewed by investigators before being brought to the Escambia Jail.

“This is a textbook case of what determination and cooperation can lead to in law enforcement,” spokesman Dominic Guadagnoli of the Florida Regional Fugitive Task Force said.

Additional information about the U.S. Marshals Service can be found at http://www.usmarshals.gov.