GENTRY — A shoplifting call from Gentry’s Dollar General Store on Gentry Blvd., Thursday afternoon escalated into a high-speed chase through Gentry and a manhunt in Oklahoma.
When Gentry police responded to the 12:30 p.m. shoplifting call at Gentry Blvd. and Main St., two females were detained and a male suspect later identified as Randy Buck, 28, of Decatur (but also known to frequent Berryville, Gravette, Siloam Springs and Westville, Okla.) fled on foot. When officers pursued him, he entered several parked vehicles and then started and fled in a pickup truck parked in the 300 block of N. McKinnon Ave., according to a release by Gentry police chief, Keith Smith, on Friday.
According to the release, Buck led police on a high-speed chase through the city which also passed through residential yards and tore out fences. Buck ran a number of stop signs, and police pursued Buck westbound on Main Street and west on Arkansas Highway 12. Buck reached speeds near 100 mph and also led police off the road through fences and fields to Cripps Rd. and then back onto Highway 12 and west toward Oklahoma.
Gentry police were joined by a Benton County sheriff’s deputy and pursued Buck into Oklahoma, where he crashed the stolen pickup truck approximately 3/4 of a mile west of Sandusky, Okla., and fled on foot, according to the release, leading to the manhunt.
Gentry police and Benton County sheriff’s deputies were joined in the search by multiple Oklahoma law enforcement agencies, including an Oklahoma Highway Patrol airplane, the release states.
After several hours, Buck was found and, after a brief chase, was apprehended by a Benton County Sheriff’s Office K-9 unit, the release states. Buck was treated by medical personnel for dog bite and then transported to the Delaware County Jail. Buck faces charges in connection to the Gentry shoplifting incident, theft of the pickup truck, the chase through Gentry and western Benton County, as well as Oklahoma charges related to the chase and crashed vehicle. It was also learned by Gentry police that the vehicle used by Buck to drive to the Dollar General Store in Gentry was listed as stolen out of Tahlequah, Okla.
It was determined by Gentry police the two females were not involved in the shoplifting incident and they were released from police custody.
Agencies participating in the pursuit and manhunt included the Gentry Police Department, Benton County Sheriff’s Office, Colcord (Okla.) Police Department, Delaware County (Okla.) Sheriff’s Department, Oklahoma Highway Patrol, U.S. Marshal’s Service and Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation.