After spotlights, search dogs and a helicopter failed, all it took was a concerned citizen’s phone call to put an end to an all-night manhunt in Love County.
Casey Wright and Steven Ward, both 18 and from Loco, were arrested at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday, hours after a chase that started in Valley View, Texas. They are being held in the Love County Jail awaiting extradition to Texas.
Love County Undersheriff Jason Bone said the chase started around 10 p.m. Monday after a Texas state trooper tried to pull the two over as they drove south on Interstate 35. He said the two struck the trooper’s patrol vehicle with their car, and the trooper fired a shot at them.
When the two crossed the state border, Oklahoma Highway Patrol roadblocks were waiting for them.
The Loco pair then ditched their vehicle in the bottom of a runoff creek south of Marietta, fleeing on foot. Bone said officers from OHP, Texas Department of Public Safety, Cooke and Love County sheriff’s departments, the Chickasaw Lighthorse Police and the Marietta and Thackerville police all aided in the search, but were unable to find the two.
Wright and Ward were apprehended behind the Homeland grocery store in Marietta after a tip was called in to the Marietta police. Police Chief Linda Johnson said Love County sheriff’s deputies assisted with the arrest.
Wright and Ward are being held on a 48-hour affidavit pending an extradition hearing.
