By MARY JANE FARMER
Herald Democrat
Durant police and many other Oklahoma law enforcement agencies are on the hunt for a man who led police on a high speed pursuit which resulted in two injured officers. Police have not released the name of the more seriously injured officer, who was flown to a Dallas hospital.
Linston Gilbeau, 44, is being sought in connection with the incident. He is described as being 5 feet, 9 inches tall and weighing 170 pounds. He has brown eyes, brown hair, and a medium complexion. Police last saw him running eastward from Five Doe Road and the Blue River near Blue, Okla. wearing a cut-off white shirt, olive-drab jacket, and blue jeans.
Durant Police Lt. Carrie Wyrick said that about 2 p.m. Saturday, Officer Wesley Crank attempted a traffic stop on a vehicle at N. McClean and E. Cedar in Durant. The driver failed to stop and initiated a high-speed pursuit that went east on old U.S. Highway 70 leaving Durant city limits. Wyrick said the other officer was attempting to catch up to the pursuit when he lost control of his police car at Lone Oak and old U.S. Highway 70. The patrol car left the roadway and struck a tree. The officer sustained head, trunk and arm injuries. At 3 p.m., officials at Parkland Hospital report he is stable.
The pursuit continued to Five Doe Road where it turned southbound. The road dead-ends at a gate about two miles south of the turn-off. The suspect turned off his headlights and stopped prior to the gate and jumped out of the vehicle, Wyrick said. Crank did not see the stopped vehicle until it was too late for impact and Crank's patrol car struck the vehicle. Crank got out and gave chase on foot, but had sustained a back injury that prevented him from completing the foot pursuit. He called for help and went by ambulance to a Durant hospital, where, Wyrick reported, he was treated and later released.
Officers from across Bryan County answered the assistance call to help look for Gilbeau. A force of about 30 officers from the Durant Police Department, Bryan County Sheriff's Office, Calera, Colbert, Bennington, Bokchito, Choctaw Tribal, and Caddo police departments, plus another 25 officers from Oklahoma Highway Patrol, Wyrick said, searched on foot, on the roads, from airplanes, horses and with tracking dogs.
They established a perimeter around the area where Gilbeau was last seen and worked outward from there. After exhausting that area, the perimeter units were released and OHP Troop Z is continuing the manhunt.
Wyrick said Gilbeau should be considered armed and dangerous and anyone with information on his whereabouts should call their nearest law enforcement agency.