Both suspects charged with capital murder
GRENADA – Two men are being charged with capital murder after they allegedly struck and killed a veteran police officer during a high speed chase on Friday. Fifty-year-old Captain John Wayne Haddock was killed on Oct. 7 while trying to stop a car carrying two men suspected of robbing a church.
Authorities said Haddock was putting down spike strips to stop a vehicle driven by 20-year-old Kyle David Wendt, of Colorado Springs, and his passenger, 40-year-old Thomas Leland Lee, of West Monroe, Louisiana.
Reportedly, about 8:50 a.m., Grenada County sheriff’s deputies were in pursuit of Wendt and Lee after they were allegedly involved in the burglary of a building on church property in the Holcomb area.
As the pursuit approached the city limits, deputies phoned ahead for assistance from the Grenada Police Department, and Haddock drove to Highway 8 and the Interstate 55 overpass where the suspects were believed to be headed.
One witness told the Grenada Star Newspaper that she saw Haddock get out of his patrol car to place the spike strips on the ground when the suspect’s car approached at a very “high speed,” lost control and hit him. “He went flying over the car,” the woman said of Haddock.
Grenada police said Haddock was thrown about 200 feet and that both he and the suspect’s vehicle, a black Toyota stolen from Memphis, went over a nearby hill. The suspect’s vehicle overturned in a ditch.
Haddock, a 20-year veteran with the Grenada Police Department was pronounced dead at the scene, while Wendt and Lee were transported to Grenada Lake Medical Center and later airlifted to a hospital in Memphis.
Both suspects have been released and are now in custody in Grenada. Lee was arrested on Oct. 7 and Wendt on Oct. 8.
Both Wendt and Lee have been charged with capital murder and are being held without bond on that charge. They have also been charged with felony burglary and felony fleeing of a law officer. Bond for those charges is $200,000 cash.
Authorities said Wendt, who gave numerous false names at the time of his arrest, is a known sex offender in Colorado and goes by the names “Raider” and “Harry Potter”. He was convicted in 2010 of sexually assaulting a child.
Funeral services for Captain Haddock were Tuesday afternoon in Grenada.
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