JENNINGS COUNTY — Jennings County Sheriff’s deputies arrested a Seymour man after the sheriff saw an item fall out of the back of a pickup truck and the driver failed to stop.
Sheriff Gary Driver was driving south on County Road 575W when he saw the pickup and the item falling out, and then followed it and attempted to stop it on County Road 200S, where the truck fled at a high rate of speed, said Lt. Mike Mowery, sheriff’s department spokesman.
The truck then turned into a driveway where the driver, Luke S. Newkirk, 26, Seymour, jumped out while the truck was still in gear and ran into a cornfield, Mowery said.
Driver, Detective Sgt. Jim Blevins and Jennings County deputies set up a search and asked for a police K9 to assist. Sgt. Allen Ritchie and K9 Vampir searched the area and Vampir found the suspect within a few hundred yards from the driveway in the field.
Newkirk was taken to St. Vincent Jennings Hospital where he was treated for leg injuries resulting from being apprehended by Vampir. He was then taken to the Jennings County jail on preliminary charges of:
- Habitual traffic violator
- Possession of methamphetamine
- Resisting law enforcement
- Possession of marijuana with a prior conviction
- Resisting law enforcement
His bond was set at $6,255 at the Jennings County Jail, jail officials said.
For more on this story, see Thursday’s Republic.
