Custer County prosecutors filed two first-degree murder charges Monday against a man accused of firing a gun at drivers along Interstate 40 during a suspected road rage incident last week.
Pasadena, Texas native Jeremy Hardy was initially held on a complaint of driving under the influence. He was formally charged with nine counts yesterday, including assault with a dangerous weapon, eluding an officer, and using a vehicle while discharging a weapon.
The seemingly random attack started shortly before midnight on December 16, when one of those killed, Jeffrey Powell, was driving west on I-40 near Hydro when he and his wife Tamara noticed a black pickup truck quickly coming up behind their SUV, according to The Oklahoman’s Matt Dinger:
Jeffery Powell sped up and then pulled off the road to avoid being struck from behind. The pickup then drove off, according to the affidavit. . . . The black pickup caught up with the Powells at mile marker 96 in Caddo County, when Tamara Powell phoned troopers to report what was happening. The pickup pulled up beside their SUV, and shots were fired into the SUV, striking Jeffery Powell in his upper body, court records show. Jeffeey Powell pulled to the shoulder of the road, and his wife rendered aid to him as he died, the affidavit states.
The shootings continued into Weatherford, where Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers found Billie West dead inside her vehicle on an I-40 off-ramp just east of town. Hardy allegedly fired at several other drivers while continuing to drive erratically.
Nearly 30 miles west of where the two fatal shootings occurred, state troopers began pursuing a black truck matching the shooter’s vehicle’s description, Dinger writes:
About mile marker 50 in Washita County, the driver threw an object from the pickup. A sheriff's deputy recovered a handgun in the grass on the side of the road at that spot, the affidavit states. The driver of the pickup doubled back down the eastbound lanes of the interstate where he was stopped by law officers at mile marker 57. The pickup was processed by Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agents, who found the casings inside it, the affidavit states.
Even though the attacks span multiple counties, Custer County District Attorney Angela Marsee told The Oklahoman the nine current counts will be handled by Custer County. Hardy was denied bail during an arraignment Monday, and remains confined to the county jail in Arapaho.
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