Sheriff, suspect wounded after meth lab found in boat

Saturday, June 25th 2005, 11:17 am

By: News On 6

LAWTON, Okla. (AP) _ Authorities say the Tillman County sheriff was slightly injured when he and other law enforcement officers found a working methamphetamine lab in the back of a boat in southwestern Oklahoma.

Sheriff Billy Hanes had decided to help a ranger who had stopped a pickup truck that was pulling a boat near Lake Frederick in northeast Tillman County yesterday afternoon.

Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation Inspector Richard Goss says when Hanes and the ranger searched the boat and found the lab, one of the truck's occupants resisted arrest, put the vehicle in gear and tried to run over Hanes.

The truck drove away with the boat attached and headed into neighboring Comanche County, where the vehicle left the road at an intersection and crashed through a fence into a field and some rocks. Goss says the man jumped out of the truck and ran but surrendered after Hanes fired another shot at him.

The man was treated at a Lawton hospital for a gunshot wound to the arm. Hanes was treated for a wrist injury.