Fleeing suspect runs into SWAT

By Luke Brantley
Staff writer
WINFIELD — The Winfield City Police Department assisted the Marion County Sheriff’s Office in catching a suspect who fled on foot from a traffic stop on Wednesday, Nov. 22.
Darrell Horne, 49, was pulled over by a sheriff’s deputy near the Texaco gas station on U.S. Highway 43 in downtown Winfield.
During the stop, Horne bailed from the vehicle and ran across the highway into a patch of trees next to the railroad tracks.
Horne was headed south across the tracks toward Kirkwood Street, which intersects with Highway 43 and Highway 171 in front of Winfield First Baptist Church and continues for a few blocks in either direction.
But little did Horne know that he was headed almost directly toward the Winfield Police Department’s SWAT team, which was conducting training nearby.
“The Winfield SWAT team was having training in the area, and we heard over the radio that a county unit was on foot chasing the subject, so members of the SWAT team and Winfield Police Department converged on the area,” said Winfield Police Department Lieutenant Criminal Investigator Justin Cottingham. “Members of the SWAT team observed the suspect going down the train tracks coming up on Kirkwood Street, and they were able to take him down there in that area and hand him over to the county.”