Print edition: 
WICHITA — The two men arrested in Maize Monday night after an extended chase that began in neighboring Reno County are both Wichita residents with criminal histories, authorities said Tuesday.
Gilford Lee Sherley Jr., 47, was on parole from the Kansas Department of Corrections, Reno County Sheriff Randy Henderson said. Donald Eugene Cook, 49, is an absconder from the department of corrections. Sherley lives in the 400 block of South Emporia, and Cook lives in the 1500 block of South Pershing.
Henderson said Steven Schrock was working in a field just south of Haven Monday night when he saw two men acting suspiciously and then leaving the area in what appeared to be a Suburban. He contacted the landowner, who called 911.
A Kansas Highway Patrol officer spotted the vehicle around Arlington Road and Worthington in Reno County and began a pursuit. The chase continued into Sedgwick County, Henderson said, and eventually included sheriff’s deputies from Reno and Sedgwick counties. Officers from the cities of Maize and Wichita were also involved.
“You probably had 20 or 30 (officers) minimum” involved in the chase, Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Lt. Randy Cole said.
Sheriff’s deputies put down spike strips more than once in an effort to halt the suspects’ white Tahoe, Cole said, but the vehicle veered off the road.
“The suspect was driving off-road as much as he could,” Maize Police Chief Matt Jensby said. “He drove right through the backyard of our police station.”
Cole estimated the suspects drove through fields for two miles before entering the Fiddler’s Cove addition in Maize and crashing into a dirt mound.
Sherley and Cook bailed from the vehicle at that point. Authorities cordoned off the area near 37th Street North and Tyler Road and began a coordinated search that included three K-9 units, Cole said.
K-9 dog Chapo, who entered active duty just a week ago, found Cook at about 8:15 p.m. in some rocks near the trout pond and stream in the center of Fiddler’s Cove, authorities said.
“Chapo must have told him real convincingly” to surrender, Cole said, because Cook was taken into custody without incident.
Nearly an hour later, a resident of Fiddler’s Cove noticed the cover for his barbecue grill was missing, Cole said. When he looked around to find it, “the cover was over something with blue jean legs sticking out of it,” Cole said.
Authorities were notified, and Sherley was spotted hiding beneath the elevated back deck of the house.
When Sherley refused to surrender, the K-9 dog Patton was sent in to apprehend him. Sherley was treated at the scene for a bite to his leg, Cole said, and then taken to the Sedgwick County Jail.
The suspects were found fairly close to each other in the 4000 block of Stone Barn, Jensby said.
Both men made their first appearances in Reno County District Court Tuesday morning, Henderson said.
A shotgun was stolen from the Reno County landowner’s truck, and authorities found it in a field next to Arlington Road at the Reno-Sedgwick County line at about noon today, Henderson said.
