Texas man charged with Oklahoma drivers' murders in suspected road rage

By Heide Brandes

OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - A Texas man suspected of killing two people during a possible road rage incident on a highway west of Oklahoma City last week was formally charged on Monday with two counts of first-degree murder, officials said.

Jeremy Doss Hardy, 36, of Pasadena, Texas, was charged in Custer County Court in Arapaho, Oklahoma, for the murders of Jeffrey Kent Powell, 45, of Arapaho, and Billie Jean West, 63, of Lone Wolf, who died in separate incidents on Wednesday and early on Thursday.

Both victims were driving on Interstate 40 at the time of the shootings. Calls made by witnesses to 911 suggested Hardy also may have attempted to run the first victim, Powell, off the road before shooting at him, according to the Oklahoma Highway Patrol and the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.

In addition to murder, Hardy was charged with one count of assault with a dangerous weapon and one count of use of a vehicle in the discharge of a weapon.

Hardy was originally arrested on Thursday on a driving under the influence complaint, but was the sole suspect in the two fatal shootings, officials said.

(Reporting by Heide Brandes; Editing by Ben Klayman and Matthew Lewis)