UPDATE: Oakland County Sheriff Issues Statement on AWOL Marine

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This story has been updated:

The U.S. Marine Corps said Wednesday that a Marine AWOL since Monday and believed to be a threat to his ex-wife in Michigan was captured in North Carolina

“Clenard Gee-Simmons has been located and taken into custody by the Cataret County Sheriff’s Office in Atlantic Beach, N.C.,” the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office said today in a Facebook posting. “This location is approximately one hour from Camp Lejeune, where Gee-Simmons had been stationed. NCIS and law enforcement officials are continuing their investigation.”

Our earlier report:

An AWOL Marine reportedly armed with an AK-47 who military officials think may be on his way to Oakland County to kill his estranged wife told a Detroit television station Tuesday his intent has been blown out of proportion and he plans to turn himself in to authorities at his base in North Carolina, “just not right now.”

Clenard Gee-Simmons, 21, has been the subject of a manhunt along the East Coast and across the Midwest since he disappeared Monday from what authorities called a low priority lockdown unit at Camp Lejeune, NC.

Gee-Simmons, a native of Detroit, allegedly made “credible threats” that he was on the way to Pontiac, where his estranged wife moved and planned to file for divorce, authorities said.

In a telephone interview with WXYZ-TV, Gee-Simmons refused to say where he was, only that he was somewhere “very far south” and “nowhere near Michigan.”

Related:

• Marine Armed with AK-47 May Be Headed to Michigan to Kill Wife: Police

“I’m not gonna tell you where I’m at right now,” Gee-Simmons told the TV station. “I am contacting you, because you said I was AWOL and trying to kill my ex-wife.That is not accurate at all.

“I left base. I was not detained,” he said. “I left base because I have, like, other issues going on right now. I left base for like, stress. I just didn’t want to be [on base] at the moment.”

A rifleman previously deployed in Afghanistan, the Marine said he wasn’t armed.

He said he now “clearly” regrets a Facebook post in which he said he posted: “Has someone ever made you so mad that you feel like wiping out them and their whole entire family?”

“They took my Facebook post and blew it out of proportion,” he said.

“I’m gonna turn myself in,” Gee-Simmons continued. “Just not right now. I am gonna drive back on base and at the main gate, tell ‘em where I’m at.”

Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard, who listened in on the call, told the TV station that until he hears otherwise from the Marine Corps, the search is still on for Gee-Simmons.

Bouchard said the military “told us that there was information he had threatened to kill his wife and had an AK-7 and was on his way here.”

“That’s a little more than something was taken out of context,” the sheriff said. “If what he’s saying is true, he can turn himself in now and put an end to this.”

Gee-Simmons drives 2011 Toyota Camry with metallic teal paint and North Carolina license No. DEP 1561.

The Marine’s estranged wife and her family have moved to an undisclosed location, and Bouchard’s office has extra patrols in the area where she had been living with her father, who The Oakland Press said refused to leave.