A hotel desk clerk is dead and a hotel guest critically injured in a deadly armed robbery early Monday at a Mansfield motel.
The alleged shooter — 20-year-old Terry Dewayne Powell of Mansfield — was taken into custody around 1 p.m.
Mansfield police and DeSoto sheriff’s deputies had been searching the city for Powell for hours before finding him hiding out in an abandoned apartment on Kennedy Street. He was taken into custody without incident, Sheriff Jayson Richardson said.
Powell is charged with second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder.
The victim is identified as 75-year-old Lynda Palmer of Mansfield. Palmer had worked in assorted retail businesses and at one time was the general manager of Zales in Shreveport. Her late husband, Joe Palmer, was a longtime educator in the school system.
Palmer, who was the front desk clerk for Best Western Plus DeSoto Inn & Suites, died at the scene.
The man who was shot multiple times was a patron at the hotel has been identified as Matthew Yeager of Texas. Yeager, who works for Halliburton, reportedly walked into the hotel lobby as Powell was robbing Palmer. He was taken to Ochsner LSU Health in critical condition. He’s has since stabilized after surgery.
The shooting happened around 3:45 a.m. The search for Powell started shortly after that and a one point earlier this morning deputies and MPD officers thought they had him surrounded in a building on School Board property. But after a thorough search of the property and buildings, Powell was not found.
During that time, all Mansfield schools and district offices were on lockdown, Superintendent Clay Corley said.
This is the first homicide of the year in Mansfield.
