Manhunt snares twins suspected in deputy’s death

Associated Press

PENROSE, Colo. — Police found a cache of weapons in the home of twin brothers, known to neighbors as loners who liked to wear camouflage clothing, who are suspected of killing a sheriff’s deputy and critically wounding a police officer.

Joel and Michael Stovall, 24, were being held without bail Sunday and will be formally advised of murder charges today, said Lt. Melissa Hartman of the El Paso Sheriff’s office.

They were captured late Saturday after an all-day pursuit that led into the scenic canyons along the Arkansas River near the Royal Gorge.

About 100 law officers had joined in the search, aided by National Guard helicopters.

At the brothers’ home, investigators found several guns, several knives and what they believe to be ingredients for a bomb, said Fremont County Sheriff Ivan Middlemiss.

People who knew the brothers said they had trouble fitting in.

"They didn’t have a lot of friends. They didn’t hang out with other people and they were always acting militant, the kind of people who wanted to be in the army," said Scott Branam, who went to Florence High School with them.

"They always did twisted stuff in high school," such as dropping burning paper down vents at the school, he said. "I think the time everybody in school decided they weren’t normal was when one brother shot the other in the collarbone with a bow and arrow."

The brothers didn’t have adult criminal records, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. Both had worked as guards at the Colorado State Penitentiary in nearby Canon City, where their mother, Linda Stovall, is an officer, Viles said.

Investigators said the brothers had been arrested Friday afternoon for allegedly shooting a neighbor’s dog in an alley near their grandmother’s house in Penrose and dumping its body into the Arkansas River, about 5 miles north of Florence.

While in Fremont County Sheriff’s Deputy Jason Schwartz’s patrol car, they shot him in the back of the head several times, police alleged. It wasn’t clear how they could have used a gun while handcuffed or if whether the deputy’s own gun was used, police said.

The brothers were later seen in Florence, taking a pickup truck from a couple at gunpoint. They got into a gunfight with police and critically wounded police Cpl. Toby Bethel.

"The officers didn’t even realize they were there. It was unprovoked," said Florence Police Chief Mike Ingle.

The chief told the Pueblo Chieftain that while paramedics were removing Bethel from his car, the gunmen returned to taunt officers. "It was like they were coming after us, wanted to hurt us," he said.

As the brothers drove west out of Florence, a shotgun taken from Schwartz’s car was fired at pursuing sheriff’s cars, slightly wounding one officer.

They abandoned the pickup 40 miles west of Florence late Friday night, and about 24 hours later they gave up in Salida, 55 miles west of Canon City, authorities said.