Death of Fugitive Myles Owens V Being Investigated as a Suicide

This morning's death of fugitive Myles Owens V, 30, at a home on Ben Hill Drive in South Nashville is an apparent suicide.

An FBI SWAT team entered the residence after making announcements for Owens to surrender and confirming that he was inside. He was found in the garage inside a stolen Infiniti sedan with a gunshot wound to his head. A gun was found at his right side. Owens was transported to Vanderbilt University Medical Center where he died.

Owens was wanted on an outstanding federal criminal complaint charging him with possession of an unregistered firearm, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, and possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute.

He also had 20 outstanding failure to appear in court charges in Davidson County and two in Williamson County.

MNPD Violent Crimes Division detectives had been working to locate Owens for the last few months after a search warrant was executed on October 25, 2024, at Extra Space Storage on Charlotte Pike, where Owens was known to frequent. Recovered during the search were 119 pounds of marijuana, three rifles, one handgun, six Glock switches (which unlawfully make firearms fully automatic), $81,000 in cash, cocaine, pills, and methamphetamine (seen in the attached image).

The execution of a search warrant at the Ben Hill Drive home today yielded 70 pounds of marijuana, nearly $50,000 cash, jewelry and two firearms. During the search, a known associate of Owens, Kenneth Strickland Jr., 31, walked up to the scene. Strickland had an outstanding warrant for identity theft and was arrested. As he was being taken into custody, detectives found an aftermarket key fob on Strickland. They used the fob to find a nearby stolen Infiniti Q60 in which Strickland arrived. Inside the Infiniti detectives recovered two fake driver licenses, both with Strickland's face on it, but using different names. One ID was from Texas and the other from New Jersey.

Strickland was charged with motor vehicle theft, driving on a suspended license and two additional counts of identity theft. He is currently being held in lieu of $40,500 bond.