Fugitive from Steuben County captured in Fort Wayne

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – The man police said shot at a sheriff’s deputy following a pursuit near Angola Sunday morning has been captured in Fort Wayne by Fort Wayne police, Allen County Police the FBI and the Indiana State Police.  Zao Garth Burrell, 24, now faces murder charges for the death of  Brent Dombroski who was fatally shot prior to the pursuit.  The murder charge was announced by Steuben County Sheriff Tim Troyer during a 3:00 p.m. news conference on Monday.  About an hour later, Burrell was captured without incident.

According to the Indiana State Police (ISP), around 2:30 p.m. ISP investigators received a tip that Burrell was at a home in the 600 block of Ridgewood Drive in Fort Wayne.  The investigators contacted officials in Allen County for assistance. 

Around 4:00 p.m. authorities said deputies with the Allen County Sheriff's Department saw Burrell get into a vehicle outside the home.  Sheriff's deputies tried to make a traffic stop on the vehicle, but authorities said it sped up.   Danika Smith of Fort Wayne was driving the car.

Officers said they followed the vehicle in a short pursuit that ended in the Scott's parking lot on North Clinton near Coliseum Boulevard.  It is believed that Smith drove the car into the parking lot so Burrell could get out and run, but the lot was surrounded.  Officers arrested Burrell, Smith and other person inside the vehicle just after 4:00 Monday afternoon.  That was the second police pursuit involving Burrell in two days. Smith has been charged with resisting law enforcement and driving while suspended.

On Sunday, several police agencies in northeast Indiana and northwest Ohio started searching for Burrell following a pursuit that started in Steuben County, Ind. and ended in Williams County, Ohio.

According to Steuben County Sheriff Tim Troyer, Brent Dombroski, 40, was shot in rural Steuben County home. He was taken to Cameron Hospital where he later died.

Williams County Sheriff Kevin Beck said after Dombroski was shot, Burrell and two other men stole Dombroski's car.  The other two men are said to be Burrell’s father Danny, 49, and Michael Forrester, 22.

Beck said the three dropped Dombroski's vehicle off around U.S. 20 and State Road 49 in Williams County, Ohio and returned to the scene of the shooting in rural Steuben County.  Beck said the men arrived in the area around 6:00 a.m.  A Steuben County sheriff's deputy said he tried to pull them over for questioning, but they took off, which started the police pursuit.

The pursuit ended about a quarter of a mile east of County Road 1.50 near Columbia, Ohio.  Beck said when the vehicle stopped, Zao got out, started shooting at the officer, and then ran off into a wooded area.  Danny Burrell and Forrester were said to have remained seated in the vehicle.

At that point, officers took the elder Burrell and Forrester to the Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio. Burrell was preliminarily charged with fleeing and alluding police. Forrester was preliminarily charged with receiving stolen property.  Troyer said there is a good chance that the two will also face charges from Steuben County.

Air and ground units from multiple agencies, including SWAT and K-9, were used in the search for Burrell, but the major manhunt ended around 6:00 p.m. Sunday.

Burrell has run from authorities in the past.  In June 2011, he was wanted on a federal arrest warrant charging him for being a felon in possession of a firearm. He was in hiding from the Steuben County Sheriff’s Department for more than a week. 

A grand jury in South Bend indicted Burrell in July of last year on a federal gun charge. The Journal Gazette reported in September of 2011 he was acquitted on the gun charge in U.S. District Court in Fort Wayne.