Custer Co. man questioned after hostage situation

CLINTON — State and local investigators are interrogating a Custer County man this afternoon who was arrested after allegedly holding eight people hostage at gunpoint earlier today at a veterinary clinic near Clinton.

Police are trying to determine why Matthew Thomas Bell took hostages around 8 a.m. when employees of the Highland Veterinary Clinic began to arrive for work.

Bell, 25, fled the clinic in a stolen 2001 Toyota Tundra, which he left burning in a wheat field some eight miles east of the clinic, authorities said. Police arrested Bell within two hours when a State Highway Patrol airplane pilot spotted him walking through a wheat field not far from the torched vehicle.

"We wonder if he wasn't in the act of a burglary, and surprised by the employees when they showed up for work," Custer County Sheriff Kenneth Tidwell said. "We still don't know yet."

Investigators did find signs that the clinic safe had been tampered with, Tidwell said.

"Apparently, this guy was very polite, saying, 'Sir, can you please come in this room?' '' Tidwell said. "I'm told he was very calm and very polite. It wasn't like he went in there and whacked people with the butt of his revolver."

The Custer County Sheriff's Department was tipped to the hostage crisis shortly after 8 a.m. by the Dewey County Sheriff, whose office received a telephone call from one of the hostages. Within minutes, officers from the Clinton Police Department and Custer County Sheriff's Department were on the scene, setting up a perimeter around the clinic.

"We soon learned our suspect had fled the clinic in a stolen car," Tidwell said. "We found out he had left before we even arrived."

A bulletin was issued for the stolen car.

A short time later, Custer City Police Chief Kenneth Dickerson reported that he had spotted the vehicle burning in a nearby wheat field.

"I have to hand to all the agencies involved," Tidwell said. "The response time from everyone involved was incredible. We couldn't have caught this guy without their help."