Manhunt in Strong ends in two arrests

A cross-county car chase and manhunt occurred Thursday, with a stolen vehicle fleeing from police from Crossett in Ashley County to Strong in Union County.

Crossett Police Department Assistant Chief Jerry Bortell said their office got a call about someone waving guns out of the window of their vehicle Thursday morning. He said when officers went to investigate the situation, the vehicle fled.

Crossett police proceeded to follow the vehicle all the way into Union County. Bortell said they started on Martin Luther King Drive (previously called Florida Street) in Crossett before getting on Highway 82 and driving to Strong. When the vehicle entered Union County, the Union County Sheriff’s Department joined in to assist in the chase.

The vehicle crashed on a dangerous curve in Strong, losing control, hitting a pole and ending up in a ditch, Bortell said. Officers from the CPD and UCSO worked together to begin conducting a manhunt in the woods next to the area where the vehicle crashed.

Chief Charlie Phillips of the UCSO said guns and drugs were discovered inside the vehicle after the accident. Bortell said they did not find out that the vehicle was stolen until after the accident.

The UCSO brought a K9 officer to assist in the manhunt, but the search was ultimately unsuccessful, so both departments called it quits and went to their respective headquarters to regroup.

Phillips said the UCSO received an anonymous tip that the two suspects were heading back to Crossett in a lime green Camaro. He said the UCSO notified CPD, who then apprehended the two suspects.

Bortell said the two suspects have been arrested and, at the time of this writing, were being interrogated. He could not confirm what the suspects’ names were as of press time Thursday.