NATCHEZ — A local running group turned their weekly exercise into a criminal-stopping sprint Wednesday evening.

Approximately 20 members of the Fat Mama’s Knocked Naked Running club were on their weekly run when the incident happened, club member Marcus Mathis said.

Mathis was running down Wall Street when he saw something out of the ordinary.

“I saw a guy running down the street in a hard core sprint, a dog chasing him,” Mathis said.

At first, Mathis hid in the bushes because he thought the dog was chasing the man, but he said then he saw an Adams County sheriff’s deputy come into view and he noticed the running man was wearing handcuffs.

“I asked the (deputy) if he needed help, and he said, ‘Yeah,’ so I took off,” Mathis said.

Chasing the handcuffed man, Mathis said he caught and restrained him on Main Street, where the deputy used a Taser to subdue the fleeing prisoner.

Sheriff Chuck Mayfield said the prisoner, Daniel Smith, 29, 701 West Third, Brady, Texas, was one of three prisoners who had been arrested as part of an undercover marijuana sale sting.

“They were being transported to the jail, and the sally port where they bring in the prisoners was full, so they had to take the last one and pull around front,” Mayfield said. “When they did, the prisoner took off running.”

Once the prisoner was Tased ,the deputy, Lee Best, was able to transport him back to the jail, Mayfield said.

Smith was charged with acting in concert for the sale of marijuana and attempted escape — fleeing arrest.