ELMENDORF, Texas – A man who police say led them on a chase early Saturday morning also led authorities to the body of a man he claims he killed.
Officers tried to pull Dallas Walters Jr., 47, over for a defective brake light in the 7600 block of South Loop 1604 East at around 1:12 a.m. Saturday, but he refused to stop, according to Elmendorf police. When he finally stopped at a gas station by the intersection of Loop 1604 and I-37 a few miles later, police say Walters told them he had beaten a man to death back in North Carolina.
"Basically, one of my officers had asked, you know, 'Why did you run?'" Elmendorf Police Chief Marco Pena said. "He said, 'Because I have a murder warrant.'"
Pena said Walters told officers he had killed the man Monday. According to a police report, he provided the officers with a North Carolina address of the murder and even told them he was driving the victim's car.
Asked if he had shot someone, according to the report, Walters told officers, "I beat his brains out with a fire extinguisher."
"I mean, he's been traveling for several days and maybe that just, 'I'm tired' and decided to, 'Hey, I'm here. I got caught. This is what happened,'" Pena said.
The officers contacted the Moore County Sheriff's Office in North Carolina, and deputies there found Walters' roommate, Rex Watson, 57, dead at a home in the tiny town of Vass.
A cause of death has not been determined yet, according to a release from the Sheriff's Office, but Watson appeared to have been killed.
Pena credited his officers' police work with helping to uncover the killing.
"I'm not saying they would never have known," he said, "but I'm sure that at the time, at the speedy time that we did. So my officers did one heck of a job, and I'm very proud of what they did."
Walters also had a warrant for aggravated DUI out of Illinois, Pena said, and he was arrested on suspicion of evading arrest or detention with a vehicle. He is being held without bail in the Bexar County Jail and is awaiting extradition to Moore County, North Carolina, according to the Moore County Sheriff's Office.