A man “increasing his violent behavior” – and linked to at least three murders in Oklahoma and Alabama – was arrested in Arkansas on Thursday, authorities said.
Stacy Lee Drake, 50, “was located and arrested this morning in Arkansas by the Morrilton Police Department and Arkansas State Police,” according to a statement from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.
“If you look at his criminal history, he was continually escalating his violent behavior,” Tuscaloosa County Sheriff’s Capt. Jack Kennedy told reporters Thursday. “So he is now at least responsible for three, possibly four homicides that we know of in the last two months.”
“So I wouldn’t be surprised if there are other homicides out there that are unsolved in other jurisdictions,” Kennedy said.
“Because of his lifestyle, using false names, no fixed address, no work permit, changing and altering his appearance and then immediately fleeing in multiple, multiple, multiple states, far from the scenes of his crimes,” he added.
Arkansas State Police warned residents of Morrilton and the surrounding area, which is about 50 miles northwest of Little Rock, to keep an eye out for Drake.
The suspect appeared to be transient with previous addresses in Oklahoma and Arizona, said Capt. Jack Kennedy of the Tuscaloosa County Sheriff’s Office in Alabama.
He spent several recent days in Sequoyah County, Oklahoma, where a man and a woman were killed at a propane gas store and a car was stolen on Tuesday night, local and state officials said. These murders happened about 120 miles west of Morrilton.
In Tuscaloosa County, he was accused of killing a popular Alcoholics Anonymous counselor Russell Andrews, 62, around May 14, local authorities said.
Investigators knew Drake’s name within about 24 hours but did not make it public, believing they would have an advantage if he believed detectives did not know his name, Kennedy said.
Andrews was shot to death in a murder that stunned the community.
“I don’t know anyone who didn’t like my father. My dad was a really nice guy,” the victim’s son, Russell Andrews Jr., said Thursday. “He was very generous… and always wanted to listen. A man without a watch is how I would describe Dad.”
The murdered man was eager to help anyone in need, his son said.
“He would sit there for hours talking to people and just help them whether it was alcohol abuse, drug addiction, whatever the case was,” said Russell Andrews Jr. “Dad liked helping people in that way. And I didn’t I understood why someone would kill my father and I had no idea who it was.”
Drake was also called a “person of interest” in the death of 56-year-old Phillip Emerson in El Reno, Oklahoma, Assistant Police Chief Kirk Dickerson said Thursday.
Police were initially investigating an “unattended death” on Friday before concluding that Emerson “suffered fatal injuries consistent with homicide,” according to Dickerson.
Drake is also wanted by federal authorities who say he violated the terms of his release, Kennedy said. Drake has prior federal convictions for carjacking and illegal transportation of firearms.
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
