Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Quay County Sheriff Russell Shafer looks over a crashed car at Maple Avenue and Second Street in Tucumcari on Tuesday afternoon after a high-speed chase in which one of the vehicle's occupants shot at officers after the crash.
Two occupants of a crashed vehicle were taken into custody without further injury after a two-hour standoff Tuesday afternoon in the wake of a high-speed chase where one of the subjects shot at officers in a north Tucumcari neighborhood.
Officers from the Tucumcari Police Department, Quay County Sheriff's Office and New Mexico State Police still were investigating the crash scene Tuesday afternoon after arresting a man and a pregnant woman and taking them to Trigg Memorial Hospital in Tucumcari for medical evaluations, according to police-radio dispatches. Their injuries apparently were minor; both were able to walk to an awaiting squad car without assistance.
On Tuesday night, Scott Andrew Sherbondy, 36, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, was booked into the Quay County Detention Center on complaints of first-degree kidnapping, three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated fleeing a law-enforcement officer, shooting at or from a motor vehicle and possession of a firearm by a felon.
Early Wednesday, Brandy Campbell, 37, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, was booked into the Quay County Detention Center on complaints of three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated fleeing a law-enforcement officer and shooting from a motor vehicle.
Earlier Tuesday, Quay County sheriff's deputy Christopher Valdez received a tip from Colorado authorities about a stolen car at Russell's Travel Center in Endee near the Texas-New Mexico line, according to a Tucumcari police officer at the scene.
After Valdez tried to pull over the vehicle, a chase ensued on Interstate 40 at speeds of over 100 mph.
The chase ended in Tucumcari about 1 p.m. Tuesday when the vehicle flipped and came to rest upside-down on the northwest corner of North Second Street and Maple Avenue.
According to police-radio dispatches and officers at the scene, one of the occupants of the crashed car shot at arriving officers. No one reportedly was hurt by the gunshots.
Officers kept bystanders and an awaiting ambulance at least a block away from the crash; other officers stood behind their vehicles and pointed their rifles and handguns at the wrecked car.
Authorities also blocked parts of Highway 104, Maple Avenue and Second Street. At least 15 police vehicles were parked around the perimeter of the scene.
At 3:08 p.m., an officer radioed to dispatch a "hostage was coming out" and "threw away one firearm." Officers quickly escorted a handcuffed woman and a man to an awaiting squad car; both were taken to Trigg Hospital.
(Note: This story occurred after deadline for the May 15 edition. More details will be in the May 22 edition of the newspaper. Also the name of one of the suspects was corrected from an error in the county jail log.)
