Man wanted since 1996 arrested after traffic stop in Gary

A fugitive who escaped capture for more than 20 years was arrested after a traffic stop Thursday evening in northwest Indiana.

An Indiana State Police trooper was on patrol at 7:05 p.m. when she spotted at 2003 Buick Century without a license plate heading south on Broadway in Gary, Indiana, according to a statement from state police. She pulled the Buick over after it turned east onto 20th Place.

The man driving the Buick “verbally identified himself but fumbled with providing his date of birth and didn’t know his social security number,” state police said. He claimed his license was out of Georgia and provided the title to the car, which he said he’d bought recently.

The trooper ran the vehicle’s information with Georgia’s Department of Motor Vehicles and found a photo that “resembled the driver but he didn’t have the same facial tattoos,” state police said. She gave the driver multiple opportunities to correctly identify himself and took him into custody when he continued to repeat his previous answers.

She told the man he was being arrested for identity deception and that he would be fingerprinted at the Lake County Jail to determine his real identity, according to state police. On the way to the jail, the driver told the trooper his name was Andre R. Brunt and that he was wanted in Wisconsin.

Brunt, 43, was wanted on multiple warrants from various law enforcement agencies for armed robbery, forgery, sexual assault, drug offenses and being a felon in possession of a firearm, state police said. The U.S. Marshals Service was looking for him and he’d been on the run since 1996.

He is being held without bond at the jail in Crown Point, Indiana, according to the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.