MAYPEARL, Texas — A pickup truck that a 17-year-old Oklahoma boy stole from his parents’ home along with guns and ammunition was found Wednesday at a deadly robbery scene in Texas, authorities said.
Two male suspects are dead after the failed home robbery, according to a statement from the Ellis County Sheriff’s Office in North Texas. Their names weren’t immediately released, pending notification of relatives. Investigators also were awaiting autopsies.
The incident happened around noon Wednesday at a rural home near the town of Maypearl, 35 miles southwest of Dallas. A woman was alone at the house when she heard someone trying to turn the back doorknob. She looked out a window and saw a male armed with a gun and dressed in camouflage, the sheriff’s office said.
The woman called her husband, who was nearby and arrived at the house within minutes. He spotted the suspects, yelled at them and then got a gun.
The suspects darted from behind the house and toward a field, firing at the home as they ran. The man shot back and is believed to have hit one of the suspects, the sheriff’s office said. The woman called 911.
Deputies arrived and began a search. They found one of the suspects 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 was inside the stolen pickup truck, also dead from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Ellis County sheriff’s spokeswoman JoAnn Livingston said investigators confirmed through the license plates on the truck that it was the same vehicle stolen in Oklahoma.
The bodies were taken to the medical examiner’s office in nearby Dallas County for identification. The man at the home, who shot at the suspects after his wife called him, was treated at the scene for a minor injury from the shooting. Authorities did not release his or his wife’s names.
Sheriff’s investigators in Oklahoma said Kenneth Chaffin, 17, stole the red 1991 Ford Ranger pickup truck Monday from his parents’ home in Bethel Acres, Okla., about 30 miles southeast of Oklahoma City.
Pottawatomie County, Okla., Undersheriff Travis Palmer said the teen also is 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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