Hostages released, 1 fugitive dead as Oklahoma standoff ends

Police outside the Edmond, Oklahoma, home on Saturday

EDMOND, Oklahoma (CNN) -- A daylong hostages standoff between two prison escapees and police in Edmond, Oklahoma, ended violently late Saturday night, shortly after the release of one of two elderly captives.

Police said William Dell Davis, 46, killed himself as part of a pact with fellow escapee Douglas Eugene Gray, 35, that they would not be taken alive. Gray gave himself up to authorities after Davis shot himself. Both hostages were unharmed.

Earlier, after about seven hours of captivity inside her own home, a woman described as being in her 70s was released, authorities said. Her husband remained in the house with the two fugitive felons until the standoff was resolved.

The escapees were discovered earlier Saturday when an Edmond police officer noticed a vehicle that fit the description of one allegedly stolen earlier in the day by the pair, who escaped from a medium-security prison March 16, said Glynda Chu, a spokeswoman for the Edmond Police Department.

Davis, top, and Gray

As the two men parked the vehicle and walked toward a field, the officer ordered them to stop. Instead, they ran into a residential area and broke into the house of the elderly couple.

Family members of the elderly couple had been able to talk with them while both were in the house, police said.

During the standoff, the hostage-takers had demanded dinner, asked for a female negotiator under the age of 40 and asked that the police not storm the house, Chu said.

As police surrounded the house, they suspected that the duo was armed by taking guns from several of the cars they allegedly hijacked during their week as fugitives. The two had hurt no one during their time away from the prison, Chu said.

Gray and Davis escaped last week from the Mack Alford Correctional Center at Stringtown, 150 miles away, by hiding in a mail cart.

Gray was serving a life sentence for beating and shooting a teacher in 1988. Davis was serving a life sentence for first-degree murder after being convicted of stabbing a man with a 10-inch hunting knife some 80 times during a robbery in 1974. He was eligible for parole in February 2002.

Manhunt focuses on fresh clues for 2 Oklahoma prison escapees
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Two escape from Oklahoma maximum security prison
January 15, 2001

Mack Alford Correctional Center
Oklahoma Department of Corrections
Oklahoma Highway Patrol

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