DALLAS (AP) — Two suspects were dead after an attempted home invasion Wednesday afternoon in north Texas, and police said the pickup truck stolen by a wanted 17-year-old Oklahoma boy was found nearby.
Authorities said that when a woman in the small town of Maypearl, 35 miles southwest of Dallas, noticed someone was trying to open her home’s back door Wednesday afternoon, she looked out the window to find a camouflage-clad male armed with a gun.
She phoned her husband, who was nearby and arrived quickly. Minutes later, following an exchange of gunfire with the homeowner, two male suspects were dead, both apparently from self-inflicted gunshots, according to the Ellis County Sheriff’s Department.
The bodies were taken to the medical examiner’s office in nearby Dallas County for autopsies, and police were withholding the identities pending notification of relatives.
Earlier, authorities in Oklahoma had alerted national law enforcement to be on the lookout for Kenneth Chaffin, 17, saying that on Monday he had stolen 17 guns, thousands of rounds of ammunition, prescription drugs, nine handguns were taken along with six rifles, two shotguns and a red 1991 Ford Ranger pickup truck from his parents’ home in Bethel Acres, Okla., about 30 miles southeast of Oklahoma City.
Ellis County sheriff’s spokeswoman JoAnn Livingston told The Associated Press that investigators were able to confirm through the license plates on the truck that it was the same vehicle stolen in Oklahoma.
The Ellis County Sheriff’s office said that after the Maypearl homeowner called her husband, he arrived home and spotted the suspects. They say the man yelled at the suspect and the retrieved a gun.
The suspects darted from behind the house and ran toward a field, firing at the home as they fled. The man shot back and is believed to have hit one of the suspects, the sheriff’s office said. The woman called 911.
After deputies arrived, they found one suspect dead in the nearby field. He had been shot several times, but is believed to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the sheriff’s office said.
The other suspect’s body was found inside the stolen pickup truck, also dead from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the sheriff’s office said.
In Oklahoma, Pottawatomie County Undersheriff Travis Palmer said Chaffin was believed to have taken 17 guns, up to 2,000 rounds of ammunition and prescription drugs from the parents’ home. Nine handguns were taken along with six rifles and two shotguns, Palmer said.
Oklahoma authorities had alerted national law enforcement to be on the lookout for Chaffin and to approach the teen with caution.
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