Runaway horse eludes custody for two and one-half hours, still at large at last report

Update:

The horse was reported successfully tranquilized shortly before 5 p.m. but not confirmed the horse had been successfully captured yet. In fact, the horse was still reported at large at 9 p.m. with the owner reportedly planning to try to get it Friday morning.

Second update:

Horse reported finally roped and in custody at 11 a.m. Friday.

Original story:

A two-and-one-half hour effort to wrangle a runaway horse Thursday left officers empty-handed and frustrated.

The police and deputies often receive strange calls and cases of loose livestock are not rare. Usually they do not last this long, however.

A call came in about 1:15 p.m. Thursday about a horse in the road in the vicinity of the Pilot Truck Stop. It was said this was possibly the same horse that caused similar calls Wednesday evening.

Police and sheriff’s officers responded trying to corral the wayward horse as it got on Hwy. 15 South and I-22 at various times. Officers blocked traffic and pursued the horse out into a nearby field and spread out from the highway and nearby Murrah Road.

Sheriff’s deputies continued the pursuit but the horse would not let anyone near and had a large area to run in.

Eventually, the horse stopped in a bean field off Hwy. 15 South near King Creek and United Funeral Service, and officers were able to hit it with darts from a tranquilizer gun twice, but the drug was not immediately effective.

As officers stayed with the still-running horse, hoping the tranquilizer would take effect, the land owner demanded that officers leave because they were damaging his plants.

The sheriff said they were doing what they needed to do because the horse posed a serious threat if it got back in the road.

Later, the sheriff relented and called officers off, but also said that if the horse caused damage, injury or death, victims would need to talk with the landowner and owner of the animal. He specifically did not say the horse should be shot but that, too, would have to be settled by the parties involved.

As of 4:30, the horse apparently was still at large and no one had been injured so far.

It was not clear who the owner of the horse is.

This story may be updated if officers resume efforts to catch the horse.