Sturgis woman describes 6-hour standoff between police and gunman that took over her backyard pond

STURGIS, Miss. (WCBI) – A suspect is behind bars after a police chase ended in a 6-hour armed standoff in a pond in Sturgis Thursday night.

“You think in a quiet, sweet little place like this that nothing like that could ever happen,” says Sturgis resident Barbara James. “But that’s wrong, it sure can.”

James says she and her husband were just sitting down to dinner some time around 6 p.m. when, suddenly, their house on Mississippi Highway 12 near Tom Street was surrounded by police cars.

“We start hearing the sirens, lots and lots of them,” she says.

The Oktibbeha County Sheriff’s Office says their deputies and first responders from 10 other agencies responded to the scene after the pursuit of 39-year-old suspect Gary Boyles of Greenville, MS ended with a crash after officers deployed spike strips in the path of the truck Boyles was driving. The sheriffs office says Boyles turned off Highway 12 and into the James’s yard before crashing right into their pond.

“I looked out and it was just oodles, tones of cop cars,” James says.

James says officers had lights trained on Boyles as he tried to stay afloat in the wreckage.

“I think he might have been standing on the back of that trailer and it started sinking and the water got up to his waste,” she said.

Then James says she saw Boyles brandishing a gun.

“The more [law enforcement] tried to talk to him and lure him out, he would put the gun up under his chin and at one point, I could’ve swore he put it in his mouth,” she said.

Eventually, James says she had to turn away.

“We were afraid,” she said. “I stopped looking. I was afraid he was going to shoot his head off.”
Some time around midnight, crisis negotiators from the FBI as well as the Starkville and Tupelo Police departments convinced Boyles to surrender.

“He was really groaning like he was hurting bad,” James recalled. “I don’t know if he was hurt or standing in that water too long.”

Boyles was taken to OCH Regional Medical center with non-life threatening injuries. He was then taken into custody at the Oktibbeha County Jail to await arraignment. The sheriff’s office has not released any information on the charges Boyles is facing at this time.