Police nabbed a pair of Mississippi fugitives this morning in northwest Indiana in a peaceful ending to an intense three-day local manhunt that involved carjackings and gun battles.
Convicted killer John Woolard, 37, surrendered at 9:45 a.m. to heavily armed police in a swampy wooded area five miles west of here.
Police had caught his partner, Roy Harper, 42, three hours earlier in nearby St. John, where the men had stolen a van from a man who was washing it in his driveway.
Neither fugitive resisted police when he was finally cornered. No officers were injured.
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“Evidently, they are very tired and, like I said, there are some injuries (to the fugitives) from being in the underbrush for so long,” Lake County Sheriff John Buncich told reporters shortly after Woolard was captured. “The citizens of this county can rest easy that we have them in custody.”
Residents who live in the houses that line the area’s farms and woodlands expressed relief Friday.
“We’re glad they got them. We’ll sleep tonight,” said Randy Rea, 49, of Lowell.
Mary Anderson, 53, also of Lowell, had kept a shotgun by her side all night.
“I didn’t feel safe at all,” she said.
Woolard and Harper were taken to the Lake County jail in Crown Point, where they were expected to be questioned and evaluated by medical staff.
The two men escaped from a Mississippi penitentiary in Parchman, Miss., on May 28. Woolard was serving a life sentence for killing a national park service ranger.
Harper was serving an 88-year sentence for armed robbery.
Woolard and Harper stole a van on June 9 in Charleston, W. Va.
A Lake County Sheriff’s Deputy pulled them over for speeding at 2:30 a.m. Wednesday on southbound Interstate 65, near Merrillville, Ind.
Woolard and Harper opened fire on the deputy, but the deputy was not injured.
A chase followed, with more gunfire exchanged between the fugitives and authorities. But the men finally escaped, on foot, behind a truck stop at Interstate 65 and Indiana Highway 2.
They resurfaced at 7:45 p.m. Thursday when they stole another van south of Crown Point. The fugitives had apparently taken refuge in the man’s garage and when he startled them, they took his van at gunpoint, leaving behind their soaking wet shoes.
More than 100 officers had been searching Friday morning.