By: Patti Weaver
(Cushing, Okla.) — A Cushing man on probation for multiple burglaries was apprehended Thursday at 7:51 pm in the woods northeast of Walmart after a manhunt that began about 13 hours earlier when a farmer realized someone was in his barn, Payne County Sheriff’s Lt. Dan Nack told KUSH today.
Brandon Windell Hill, 22, was being held in the Payne County Jail today on suspicion of burglarizing a barn, stealing a John Deere Gator as well as a van, and possessing a firearm Thursday, Nack said. Hill has not yet been formally charged, but has been scheduled to appear before a Payne County judge on Tuesday, Nack said.
The manhunt began after a farmer realized someone was in his barn about 7 a.m. Thursday in the area of 9th and Norfolk Street east of Cushing — and that the suspect took off in the farmer’s John Deere Gator, Nack said.
While sheriff’s deputies were looking for the Gator, a neighbor reported that a van was also stolen, which had gotten stuck a short distance from where the Gator was taken, Nack said.
Five officers were involved in a manhunt Thursday morning that ended after they found the Gator in a pasture southwest of Highway 33 and Norfolk Road, Nack said.
The farmer had obtained a good description of the suspect and apparently passed it on to neighbors, one of whom called 911 at 6 pm Thursday with a report that the suspect was east of Walmart in the woods, Nack said.
“We got a canine to track to the Elks Lodge and found the shotgun stolen with the Gator that morning,” Nack said.
“The suspect was seen running by Tim’s Tire and apprehended about one-quarter of a mile northeast of Walmart in the woods,” Nack said.
Four months ago after Hill was released from the state’s Regimented Inmate Discipline (RID) program where he was held for 10 months, Hill was placed on seven years’ probation under a deferred sentence for car theft, eluding a police officer, and multiple burglaries in 2019 in Payne County, Oklahoma Department of Corrections records show.
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