The Citrus County Sheriff's Office today ended its manhunt for a violent sex offender in Crystal River.

Citrus County Sheriff’s Office deputies began combing the streets in and around N.E. 11th Street earlier in today for Daniel Ray Hills, Jr., 22, a violent sexual offender who had traveled from Illinois to Citrus County.

Ground units, K-9 teams and the agency’s helicopter were all involved in the manhunt. Hills was was taken into custody without incident at an apartment complex across from the Crystal River High School parking lot.

According to the arrest report, Hills was first spotted on radar doing 60 mph in a 45 mph zone in Homosassa Springs at about 2:17 a.m. The deputy who had clocked Hills' vehicle speeding caught up with Hills, but Hills didn't respond to the patrol car's lights, and increased his speed to 70 mph then later to about 80 mph. As the deputy turned on his siren, a passenger in the vehicle tossed out a beer can in the direction of the cruiser.

As the deputy and Hills' vehicles reached Longfellow Drive, they were doing about 85 mph, and Hills eventually turned east on to State Road 44 and then onto a side street. At one point, Hills slowed down, and the passenger, John Spataro Jr, opened the door and jumped out of the moving vehicle. Hills continued onto Northeast 11th Street, and reached a water treatment plant with a locked gate. As he approached the gate, Hills jumped out and ran into nearby woods. The vehicle continued on, crashed through the gate and into a telephone pole.

The pursuing deputy was able to catch up with Hills and use his taser, but Hills got away into the woods.

A Sheriff's Office investigation showed that a 2001 Dodge pickup truck was reported stolen from an Illinois used-car lot during a June 16 burglary there and subsequent theft of the vehicle from the lot. Hills was listed as a suspect in that case. After getting a photo of Hills from the Wabash County Sheriff's Office in Illinois, the deputy who chased Hills from Homosassa Springs positively identified him as the driver of the vehicle he had been chasing.

Spataro, the passenger in Hills truck at the time of the chase, told investigators he had been introduced to Hills in a Homosassa bar, and that they had left the bar when it had closed. He said the reason he had jumped out of the truck during the chase was because he didn't want to be involved in a police chase.

Deputies caught up with Hills at about 12:47 p.m. in an area close to his home. After being read his rights, he agreed to speak with deputies.

Hills said he had stolen the pickup truck from the used-car lot in Kingsburg, Ill. after pushing in a window air conditioner in the car lot's office and finding the keys to the truck. He said he then drove the truck to a relative's home in Crystal River.

He said he felt the deputy's taser strike him, and he had felt electricity in his upper chest but, he said, he didn't realize until later that a taser probe was still in his chest. Hills said he hid in the woods after he escaped from the deputy, where he stayed until his vehicle had been towed away. He then went back to the water treatment plant, found a city pickup truck with the ignition keys in it and drove it for a distance and then went on foot again.

Hills said he then hid in the woods again until he was able to work his way back to his relative's residence, where he was taken into custody.

He was taken to the Citrus County jail, where he was charged with two counts of grand theft, one count of fleeing and eluding, one count of resisting arrest without violence, one count of leaving the scene of a vehicle crash with property damage and one count of driving while his license was suspended or revoked.

His bond was set at $10,250.