Updated Feb. 11, 2026, 5:42 p.m. PT

Three days after a suspect being pursued by the Redding Police Department jumped into the Sacramento River to evade the officers, his body has been recovered by the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office Dive team, authorities announced Wednesday.

The person whose body was retrieved at 10:20 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 11, was identified as 37-year-old Alex Abrams of Redding, the Sheriff’s Office said in a social media post.

The dive team had responded to the Kutras Boat Ramp on Park Marina Drive and travelled by boat to the decedent’s location north of the Highway 44 overpass and south of the Sundial Bridge near “the Bluffs,” authorities said.

Abrams’ next-of-kin has been notified and a postmortem examination will be scheduled, according to the sheriff’s office.

Previously, on Feb. 8 at about 3 a.m., a Redding Police officer had conducted a traffic stop near Bonnyview Avenue and North Bonnyview Road in south Redding for a vehicle with false license plates.

The driver, identified as Michael Smith, 38, of Redding, provided a false name during the investigation. While the officer attempted to verify the information, the vehicle accelerated, driving off the roadway near the Turtle Bay Arboretum and onto the Sacramento River Trail and continuing west through Caldwell Park before stopping near the boat ramp.

Smith and a male passenger got out of the vehicle and ran into the Sacramento River, a statement from the department said.

Two women who were in the backseat were interviewed and released, the sheriff’s office said.

Both men floated east toward the diversion dam near the fish ladder, with Smith eventually coming ashore, according to the Redding police. Smith was booked at the Shasta County Jail on felony charges of evading and kidnapping and a felony warrant out of Trinity County for a burglary charge.

Despite an extensive search along the river and its banks for the second man who’d fled into the river, officers did not locate the second man — Abrams — until his body was discovered early Wednesday, the sheriff’s office said.

Michele Chandler covers public safety, dining and whatever else comes up for the Redding Record Searchlight/USA Today Network. Accepts story tips at 530-338-7753 and at mrchandler@gannett.com. Please support our entire newsroom’s commitment to public service journalism by subscribing today.