Manhunt going on in Springtown

[Country cracker]

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Search ongoing for Parker County suspect who battled deputy
Posted: Oct 14, 2013 5:14 PM CDT
Updated: Oct 14, 2013 6:03 PM CDT
By: myfoxdfw.com Staff - email
Parker County officials are searching for a suspect accused of trying to attack a deputy during a traffic stop.

Winford Watkins allegedly refused to drop his gun and while the deputy took cover, Watkins grabbed a tire iron and started smashing the deputy's windshield.

The deputy then shot at the suspect, who fled the scene and triggered a brief chase.

Officials spent Monday afternoon searching the area where Watkins fled, but had yet to locate him.

Watkins was sentenced to 45 years in jail last week by a Collin County jury on burglary charges. He was also previously convicted on child sex charges.

[Downs]

Sentenced to 45 years in jail last week? Why was he out? Did he escape?

[Country cracker]

I think he was being transported and got away from the Parker county deputy. I went to school with a few guys that became Parker county deputies . I know I wouldn't trust them checking my oil much less transporting a prisoner. They would make Barney Fife look like superman.

[Downs]

My dad is Parker County Deputy.

[Captain Crawfish]

Obviously the guy didn't like the sentence

[Country cracker]

He skipped his last day of his trial

[Lone Sailor]

I think he was being transported and got away from the Parker county deputy. I went to school with a few guys that became Parker county deputies . I know I wouldn't trust them checking my oil much less transporting a prisoner. They would make Barney Fife look like superman.

Why was he being transferred from Parker County if he was on trial and sentenced in Collin County?

[Country cracker]

Why was he being transferred from Parker County if he was on trial and sentenced in Collin County?

He wasn't being transferred I was just guessing. He was on his last day of trial and didn't show up. He has been in Springtown because that's where he was staying at.

[YALE]

Congratulations! Your thread is less clear than the average Frost thread.

[Denny]

Your posts are less clear than Frost's.

Classic case of clearlessness.

[mustang_revival]

He dead.

[Country cracker]

A prison parolee was fatally shot Tuesday morning by deputies after he pointed a gun at them at a Parker County home where he had kept authorities at bay, the sheriff said Tuesday.

Winford R. Watkins, 44, was found dead in a bathroom of a home on Cindy Lane in rural Parker County.

Watkins dropped from a ceiling in the house and pointed a gun at deputies who were at a back door, said Parker County Sheriff Larry Fowler on Tuesday morning in a telephone interview.

The sheriff said that deputies opened fire on Watkins and he retreated into a bathroom shortly before 5:30 a.m. Tuesday. Fowler said that Watkins did not fire his weapon.

Authorities used a camera to look inside of the bathroom, then entered the room more than two hours later.

Watkins was the focus of a manhunt in northeast Parker County late Monday, Fowler said.

Watkins had come to the attention of a Parker County sheriff’s deputy about 1 p.m. Monday as the deputy made what Fowler called “a routine check” on a Jeep Cherokee’s license plate. He found that the plate did not match the vehicle, so he pulled it over on Midway Road southeast of Springtown.

Watkins, however, was immediately combative, Fowler said.

“The deputy approached the vehicle, but the driver got out and he had a bunch of papers in his hands,” Fowler said.

The deputy thought he saw a handgun “concealed in those papers,” so he ordered the man to drop it all, Fowler said.

“So everybody’s out there ducking and dodging,” the sheriff said. “This guy is screaming at the deputy, ‘I’m not going back! I’m not going back!’ I’m assuming he meant prison.

“But this dude reaches into his car and gets a four-way lug wrench. He walks over to the patrol car and starts beating on it. Well, the deputy knows that in that patrol car is a loaded AR-15 rifle, and the deputy ain’t about to let him get ahold of that AR.

“The deputy popped off a couple rounds, but nobody gets hit.”

The man got back into the Jeep and drove off, and the deputy pursued him, Fowler said.

The man drove to nearby Cindy Lane, where he got out of the car and ran off into the brush, leaving a female companion on the side of the road. The woman told the deputy Watkins’ name.

Fowler said a tracking dog followed the man’s scent to a house where the owner said he knew Watkins. The homeowner said he recently installed 12 inches of new insulation in the attic and noticed some of it on the floor, which was odd.

Deputies pumped CS gas into the attic and waited to see if Watkins would appear.

No gun was found in the Jeep Cherokee, so searchers were assuming that Watkins is armed and dangerous, Fowler said.

Watkins has been to prison twice, Texas Department of Criminal Justice records show.

In 2008, he was convicted in Dallas County on two counts of possessing a controlled substance (one for cocaine, one for methamphetamine), burglary of a building and two cases of credit card abuse.

He was paroled in 2010, but six months later he was convicted again of possessing a controlled substance, “meth habitual,” according to TDCJ. He was paroled again in 2012, the records show.

Records also say he was about to complete his latest parole at the end of this month.

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[Ted]

A prison parolee was fatally shot

A penny saved, is a penny earned.

[CJ]

look how much money a quarter round of 9mm saved us.