Man captured after 12-hour search, pursuit

Cordell resident Jerry Don Smith, 40, was taken into custody Friday morning following a 12-hour search and pursuit involving four different law enforcement agencies that ended about 11:15 that morning.
A press release issued by Washita County Sheriff Roger Reeve said a $60,000 bond had been set for Smith on previous charges in his county and he also was wanted in Custer County where a $40,000 bond had been set.
Sheriff Reeve’s press release said the search began around 11:15 p.m. Thursday when a 911 call was received from a female who said Smith had abandoned her in a field southwest of Corn.
The woman said she had been riding on a red all-terrain vehicle with him when he drove through a fence in a state of paranoia, thinking law enforcement was chasing him. She said he had a gun and had started shooting at what he was imagining to be lawmen, and that he would attempt “suicide by cop,” that is, he would try to get law enforcement to kill him.
At the time, he already had several warrants out for his arrest on the prior charges.
Reeve said that for most of the rest of the night, officers from his department and the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife searched an area between Cordell and the spot near Corn where the suspect had driven through the fence but were unsuccessful in finding him. However, not far from where he had gone through the fence, they did find another ATV which had been reported stolen in that same area earlier this month.
Shortly before 7 a.m. Friday the Sheriff’s Office received a call from a landowner who reported that a male riding a red ATV was trespassing on his property northeast of Cordell. The landowner said he had chased the individual off his property and followed him a short distance on County Road E1180. At that point the landowner said the ATV ran off the road into another field where he lost sight of it.
Washita County deputies and Cordell police officers responded to that call and began searching again for Smith. They also started alerting nearby residents.
At approximately 8:20 a.m. a deputy spotted the red ATV headed west through a field just northwest of Cordell. They set up a perimeter around that section of land, and for the next 20 minutes the person believed to be Jerry Don Smith tested them, trying to find a way to escape again.
Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers joined the search as well. Several times the ATV traveled north and south on some railroad tracks running between C.R. E1170 and 14th Street, with the rider evidently trying to get out of the perimeter.
At 9:30 a.m. another local resident called 911 and advised that the person on the ATV was in a field behind his (or her) house just north of the intersection of 14th and Cook streets, at the northwest corner of Cordell.
The ATV then went east and onto some railroad tracks that run south past 14th into Cordell.
At some point deputies were able to confirm that the rider was indeed Smith. They and other officers began to converge on him from both the north and the south when he got the ATV hung up on the tracks.
But somehow he managed to free it and headed back north along the tracks directly toward a deputy and another officer. As he accelerated past the deputy, the deputy fired two shots at the ATV trying to disable it.
Shortly after that Smith crashed the machine into another fence. With it tangled in the wire, he took off running on foot to an area of thick vegetation and trees along CR N2240, which is north of 14th and Grant streets.
Still, though, he managed to hide.
“Washita County deputies, Cordell police officers, and Oklahoma state troopers methodically searched this area for several hours before Mr. Smith was seen running from a washout back west toward the railroad tracks,” said the release.
Around 11:15 a.m. Friday deputies confirmed that he was in custody and was being transported to the Washita County Justice Center.
Sheriff Reeve said he would like to thank and commend his deputies, the Cordell Police Department, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, and the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife for their combined efforts that brought an end to the incident. He also thanked citizens around Cordell who had called in tips alerting lawmen to the suspect’s movement and different locations.
Smith had been charged in December of 2017 in Washita County with three counts of knowingly concealing stolen property, two of possessing a firearm during commission of a felony, and one of possessing a controlled dangerous substance (methamphetamine).
He was charged in April of 2018 in Custer County with driving a motor vehicle while under the influence of drugs after former conviction of a felony.
Additional charges were expected to be filed against him as a result of this latest incident.