In the wake of a man being shot and left bleeding on a country road, two brothers in a pickup truck led law enforcement on a 45-minute chase in southwestern Minnesota before a state trooper brought the pursuit to a crashing halt, authorities said Wednesday.

The two men were arrested late Tuesday afternoon within sight of the South Dakota border and jailed in Yellow Medicine County pending charges, Sheriff Bill Flaten said.

The shooting victim, 30-year-old Daniel L. Scheff, seriously wounded several days earlier south of Granite Falls, was being treated at Hennepin County Medical Center after he "had been shot up" but was expected to survive, the sheriff said.

Awaiting charges are pickup driver Derek M. Hexum, 19, now of Gordon, Ga., and passenger Devin D. Hexum, 21, of Balaton, Minn. Both attended Russell-Tyler-Ruthton High School.

The trooper used his squad car to force the truck to roll into a ditch, ending the chase about a half-mile from the South Dakota border on westbound County Road 13 in Lincoln County, the patrol said.

Flaten said investigators were still trying to determine why the shooting occurred and whether the suspects and the victim knew one another. He declined to say whether the gun has been recovered or who shot Scheff.

According to the Yellow Medicine County Sheriff's Office:

On Friday about 12:40 a.m., sheriff's deputies were called to Hwy. 23, about 2 miles south of Granite Falls, regarding a man down on the road and "covered in blood." Deputies saw that he had been shot multiple times.

On Tuesday, sheriff's personnel from Yellow Medicine and Lyons counties joined with Marshall police in pursuit of the suspects in a full-size pickup south of Marshall.

By the time the trooper forced the pickup off the road, the chase spanned 45 minutes and covered many miles through Lyons and Lincoln counties. Much of it occurred on gravel roads, Flaten said.

The Hexums were treated for minor injuries from their pickup rolling over, Flaten said. The trooper was not hurt.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482