Three people have been taken into custody after they led state police on a car chase from southwest Arkansas into Texas, the agency said Monday morning. Authorities said the suspects may have been involved in a Friday night shooting that injured a Searcy man.
Arkansas State Police Lt. Brady Gore said the car chase began about 11:10 a.m. Saturday on Interstate 30 westbound in Hempstead County. A trooper had tried to initiate a traffic stop on a vehicle that had a Florida license plate with a number that didn't match the vehicle.
Gore said the vehicle "failed to stop, accelerated speed [and the trooper] lost sight of the vehicle."
The suspect's vehicle also "sideswiped" another vehicle, striking that vehicle's side mirror, Gore said. The suspect vehicle's driver then cut off another vehicle that later collided into a guardrail. No one was injured in that wreck, he said.
Gore said officers with the Texarkana Police Department and the Nash, Texas, Police Department pursued the vehicle into Nash, Texas. Bowie County authorities also assisted in the car chase.
The suspects' vehicle came to a stop after it struck a concrete curb, Gore said. The three suspects were not injured in the wreck and were taken into custody.
Searcy Police Department spokesman Cpl. Steve Hernandez said the three people taken into custody matched the suspect descriptions police broadcasted after a Friday night shooting at a J.C. Penney parking lot.
Searcy resident Shane Looney, 40, suffered one gunshot wound in his stomach after he had planned to meet with someone to sell a ring that he had listed on the classifieds website Craigslist, police said. Hernandez said Looney was taken to the White County Medical Center to be treated for his injuries. As of 11:40 a.m. Friday, Looney was in stable condition.
Detectives with the Searcy Police Department have been sent to interview the three suspects in a Texas jail. No charges have been issued as of Monday morning.