Suspect Arrested After Hiding In Yukon Storm Drain Overnight

Canadian County deputies were involved in a bizarre standoff Sunday night when a man hid in a storm drain for about two hours. 

Deputies got a tip that a man wanted on several felony warrants was at an apartment complex. But when deputies found the suspect, he took off and ran into a storm drain. 

Yukon's Main Street was shut down and the county-wide tactical team was called in, as the man now identified as 45-year-old Donnie Ray Parks scurried through the storm sewer tunnels underground.

“The further that he went, those areas became smaller because it becomes a feeding place where all the water eventually is coming out where he went into it,” said Kevin Ward, the Canadian County Undersheriff.  “So, at some point, he wasn’t able to go any further. It was just a matter of which tunnel he’d gotten into and where he went. That’s what took us a while to go through there and find him.”

Tactical team members and a robot searched the tunnels for about two hours.

“About 100 yards into the system, he kind of holed up into the drainage system. [He] was at a manhole cover and actually tried to lift the manhole cover in the middle of Main Street. And [he] was trying to get out at the time we located hi,” said Ward.

Right around midnight, deputies were able to pull Parks out of a drain.

Parks was wanted for warrants on drug and weapons charges, according to deputies.

When police arrested Parks, they found he had a shank on him. So, he is now facing additional charges of carrying a concealed weapon and obstructing an officer.