Multi-agency pursuit ends in arrest of wanted Lafayette County suspect

A call about a wanted man seen in Lafayette County quickly escalated into a countywide pursuit after officers found James Cameron Willard in Oxford, where he fled in a vehicle, collided with a sheriff’s department patrol unit and then ran on foot.

Deputies received the tip on April 10 and learned Willard, 26, was already wanted on an outstanding felony fleeing-and-eluding warrant in Panola County, an active misdemeanor domestic-violence simple-assault warrant in Lafayette County and was also a suspect in a felony fleeing incident involving Oxford police. That put three jurisdictions into the same case before the chase even began.

Oxford officers first located Willard, according to the reports, and the vehicle flight followed almost immediately. Lafayette County deputies joined the pursuit as it moved across the area, adding more law-enforcement vehicles to an already volatile situation. During that chase, Willard struck a Lafayette County Sheriff’s Department patrol vehicle, raising the stakes for the deputies involved and for anyone nearby as the situation shifted from a wanted-person call to a collision and foot pursuit.

Willard and Hayden Boyd then ran on foot before both were later located. Boyd was booked in Lafayette County on April 11. The chain of events underscored how quickly a fugitive case can widen when a suspect with multiple warrants tries to avoid arrest and the response spreads from one agency to another.

Willard was charged with aggravated assault on a law-enforcement officer, felony fleeing and eluding law enforcement and conspiracy. He appeared before a justice court judge on April 12 and received a $1 million bond. He was being held at the Lafayette County Detention Center on a hold for Panola County and on a Mississippi Department of Corrections hold tied to a probation violation.

The case tied together officers from the Lafayette County Sheriff’s Department and the Oxford Police Department in a coordinated effort that ended with a high bond, multiple charges and a suspect already wanted across county lines.