Authorities searching for armed, dangerous Blytheville shooting suspect

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas  — Authorities are searching for a Blytheville man suspected in the shooting of another man earlier this week.

Cody Ward, 26, is wanted on several charges, including terroristic act, first-degree battery, and failure to appear-felony, according to KATV content partner KAIT Region 8 News.

Mississippi Sheriff Dale Cook said in a news release that Ward should be considered “armed and dangerous.”

Blytheville police were called to a convenience store in the 3600 block of South Division Street around 4 p.m. on Monday regarding a man who had been shot. Officers found a 64-year-old Mississippi County man with a gunshot wound. He was airlifted to a hospital in serious condition.

Officers determined that the man had been a potential witness to a crime several miles outside city limits, according to Blytheville Police Chief Ross Thompson.

Police say he called a third party about what he had seen and began following the offenders. When he and the suspects entered Blytheville city limits, Thompson said the suspects shot him in a residential area. He then drove himself to the convenience store.

“It is our understanding that the third party called a Mississippi County deputy who, in turn, notified Mississippi County Dispatch who contacted our department about the shooting,” Chief Thompson said.

A Skycop camera on South Division Street provided images of the man following the suspect vehicle.

Chief Thompson said that while searching the area for the suspects, the Blytheville Police Department began receiving false 911 calls from the suspects in an attempt to lure officers away from the area.

Officers eventually found the suspect’s vehicle in the 1300-block of Kari Lane and took two people into custody. Lindsey Williams, 27, of Blytheville, and Daniel Ledlow, 35, of Batesville. They are being held in the Mississippi County Detention Center.