BREAKING NEWS 1
Published 12:00 am Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Truck on fire behind Rusty Woods home. When his wife Meg called 911 they were told to get in the house immediately and lock the doors. The suspects were armed and dangerous and on the run.
Remains of the stolen truck after fire. The crime spree led them to Pollard Street.
Law enforcement officers from across northwest Mississippi continue to search the Horn Lake area for two white male suspects involved in a crime spree that began in Tallahatchie County Wednesday, moved to Sardis and Batesville as it continues to unfold in Horn Lake.
District Attorney John Champion said Friday morning that a truck was reported stolen in Tallahatchie County Wednesday when the two suspects “broke in a man’s house and stole his vehicle.”
Unidentified law enforcement sources confirmed that the man caught the burglars in the act, was bound while they continued to loot his home and then left in his truck.
That man’s personal effects showed up Thursday at a Batesville dollar store, according to the same official.
Around midnight Thursday, a Sardis Police Department officer pulled over a vehicle on Lee Street fitting the description of the stolen truck, a black Z-71, according to that town’s mayor, Billy Russell.
The tags had been switched and did not match the stolen report, according to the official.
The truck took off, according to Russell, and Batesville Assistant Chief of Police Don Province said his department was notified by Sardis PD about the vehicle that resembled the stolen report.
Two Batesville officers, a training officer and trainee, spotted the vehicle shortly afterward and followed. The officers saw a muzzle blast and the police vehicle went dead. Province said the round hit the radiator and electrical wiring, causing the vehicle to stall.
“Luckily, neither (officers) were hit,” Province continued.
Soon afterward a fire was reported in a field behind Harmon Circle. Rusty Woods said he heard “a bunch of popping” at 1:30 a.m. and as he looked back in the field behind his Pollard Street home all he saw was fire.
“I went out there with a water hose to put it out, Meg (his wife) called 911 and that’s
when dispatch asked us if the truck was black,” Woods said.
“Dispatch told us to get back in the house and lock the doors,” adding, “Police were there within five minutes. I don’t know how they got there so fast. The sheriff’s department was there.”
Woods surmised, “They had a lot of ammo because once the heat got to that truck it was popping a bunch.”
The crime spree continued early Friday morning as the suspects headed north and made their way to a residence north of Batesville, and kidnapped a resident, according to Panola Sheriff Dennis Darby.
“They forced him to drive them to Horn Lake,” said Province, who said they then turned the man free.
“He called immediately,” Province said.
“We know who they are,” said Darby. “They are armed and dangerous.”
The suspects were still at large at noon Friday. Officers from across the region were collaborating in the case.
