MAN FLEEING FROM POLICE COLLAPSES, DIES

MOUNT VERNON, Mo. - A Stotts City man may have died of a heart attack while
trying to flee from police Wednesday night, authorities said. Lawrence
County Sheriff Doug Seneker said John Dewayne Ellis, 44, collapsed and died
after he was chased on foot by a deputy through a wooded area west of Mount
Vernon, near the community of Baptist Hill.

Seneker said Ellis was fleeing from a rural mobile home where investigators
later found chemicals and glassware commonly used in making
methamphetamine. Investigators said they also found evidence that someone
had been cooking methamphetamine, and a quantity of what was believed to be
the finished product.

Seneker said an investigation of the incident by the Missouri State Highway
Patrol had revealed "no indications that the deputy had acted improperly in
attempting to make the arrest and that no weapons had been fired."

Seneker said Deputy Chris Berry responded to a report from the woman who
owns the mobile home that someone had been in the home and possibly had
been taking things from it.

"The woman had lived in the trailer home but had moved out several months
ago," Seneker said. "She hadn't moved her stuff yet, and the trailer was
still furnished. She checked the home occasionally, and could tell that
someone had been coming in and out of it. She was missing things, and some
things were in disarray."

Seneker said the woman, whom he declined to identify, made the initial
report at 5:37 p.m. Wednesday at the sheriff's office.

Berry accompanied the woman back to the mobile home around 6 p.m.

Seneker said Berry and the woman arrived to find Ellis inside the home.

"The deputy attempted to arrest him, but Ellis pushed the officer aside and
began running into the woods," Seneker said. "Deputy Berry chased the man
for almost half a mile when he fell to his hands and knees, then collapsed
and stopped breathing. Deputy Berry and other officers arriving at the
scene began CPR on the subject, but without success."

Seneker said Berry and other deputies performed cardiopulmonary
resuscitation on Ellis for more than 15 minutes before an ambulance arrived.

Seneker said the initial cause of death was listed as a possible heart
attack. Lawrence County Coroner Don Lakin had scheduled an autopsy for
Thursday in Springfield.

A woman who answered the phone at Lakin Funeral Home in Pierce City, where
Lakin works, said the autopsy had been delayed until late Thursday
afternoon and that no results were available Thursday night.

Seneker said Ellis had been under investigation by Lawrence County
officials for possible drug-related crimes.

He said the woman who owns the home knew Ellis.

"He was from that same neighborhood originally," Seneker said. "He had
lived in Stotts City as of late, but he was originally from the
neighborhood, and his father had lived just up the road from this trailer."

Seneker said that before he collapsed, Ellis picked up a large stick and
brandished it threateningly at Berry. Seneker said Berry was carrying a
shotgun when he entered the trailer, but he did not use it during the pursuit.

Seneker said the owner of the mobile home was not a suspect in the case and
was not connected to the meth-making equipment found in the home.