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Todd Wells, public information officer for the Searcy Police Department.

Three officers were placed on administrative leave per department policy pending a review of the use of force by the 17th Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.

Neither the suspect, Scott Wayne Stracener, nor any officers were injured in the gunfire exchange, Wells said, which happened after officers responded around 6:45 p.m. to “the area of” Arkansas Highway 267 and Adams Lane for a reckless driver call. “The caller stated that the person was driving through yards in an erratic manner and eventually got stuck in a small field,” Wells said. “An officer located the truck and attempted to make contact with the driver. The driver rolled a window down and told the officer that he had a gun to his head and then asked the officer several times if he ‘wanted to die tonight.’” Wells said the officer “backed away from the vehicle and waited for additional units to arrive. After additional officers arrived, they started yelling commands for the driver to exit the vehicle.

After several minutes of yelling commands, the driver fired multiple shots at the officers.”

The officers returned fired and gave more commands to Stracener, but received “no cooperation from the driver,” so Searcy’s Special Response Team was brought in to “extract” him, Wells said. “A chemical agent was fired into the truck, causing the driver to surrender.”

Stracener was initially placed “on a 72-hour medical hold with charges pending upon his release,” Wells said Wednesday morning. By that afternoon, he had been booked on seven counts of class Y felony criminal attempt to commit murder and three counts of class D felony first-degree terroristic threatening. He remained in the White County jail on Thursday morning.