FUGITIVES CAUGHT NEAR MINER

NEW MADRID, Mo. -- Two armed fugitives who eluded authorities for five days after firing at Sikeston, Mo., police during a car chase surrendered to authorities Monday afternoon at a barn near Miner, Mo.

James Darrell Dodds, 37, and William Hammer, 36, were arrested without incident after authorities surrounded the barn along County Road 807 south of Miner.

New Madrid County sheriff's deputies and reserve deputies as well as Miner police, Scott County sheriff's deputies and Sikeston Department of Public Safety and Missouri State Highway Patrol officers converged on the horse barn after a tip came in at 4:25 p.m. that the men were hiding inside.

New Madrid County sheriff's chief deputy Alvin Miller said the men started talking to authorities when they saw the Sikeston DPS special operations team, which is trained in building entries.

Miller said the men did not have weapons on them when arrested.

Dodds is from Sikeston and Hammer lists a Benton, Mo., address. The two reportedly grew up together in the Sikeston-Matthews area.

Police began seeking Dodds and Hammer on Thursday after Hammer's wife told Scott County sheriff's deputies the two men held her captive for two days in Bollinger County. They allegedly fired at Sikeston police early Thursday morning during a car chase that started on U.S. 60 and proceeded to south Miner in New Madrid County. About noon the same day in Glenallen, Mo., the men swapped a stolen Chevrolet van for a friend's Plymouth Voyager.

New Madrid County Prosecuting Attorney Riley Bock on Friday charged both men with two counts of assaulting a police officer and two counts of armed criminal action.

Dodds has outstanding warrants for a fourth offense of driving while intoxicated, second-degree assault of an officer and a parole violation for an assault conviction.

He was on parole from a 1996 Arkansas conviction for first-degree battery.

In 1992, Hammer was sentenced to seven years in prison for first-degree tampering with a vehicle.

He was released on parole in 1995.

He returned to prison the next year after a conviction for second-degree burglary in Mississippi County. He was released in January 2000.

They were taken to the New Madrid County Jail, and could appear in court as soon as today, Miller said.