Manhunt ends in capture
A manhunt that lasted more than two hours Tuesday, July 24, ended with a man being taken to an area hospital for heat-related problems and dehydration.
More than a dozen Benton County Sheriff’s Office deputies and Pea Ridge police officers searched a wooded ravine off Carden Road and South Curtis Avenue around 2:30 p.m. Deputies went to a home at 1589 Jenks Court to serve a warrant, according to a Sheriff’s Office news release.
Sheriff’s Capt. Mike Jones confirmed Jeremy Wayne Watkins was taken into custody at 4:30 p.m. Watkins, 33, of Pea Ridge, wasn’t the individual to whom deputies originally went to serve the warrant, but he ran from the back door when deputies knocked on the front door, officers said.
Watkins had a misdemeanor warrant for failure to appear on a suspended driver’s license. He was charged in connection with felony possession of a controlled substance, misdemeanor fleeing and the original warrant, misdemeanor possession of a controlled or counterfeit substance and resisting arrest.
Officers also spotted someone they believed was Watkins, but lost him several minutes later.
As temperatures hovered around 100 degrees that afternoon, members of the Pea Ridge Fire Department delivered water to law enforcement officers who were set up at different locations near South Curtis Avenue.
Watkins also was offered water after his capture then taken to Mercy Medical Center in Rogers. He was booked into the Benton County Jail at 6:26 p.m. Tuesday, July 24. He was still incarcerated Tuesday, July 31, in lieu of $26,000 in bonds.