ST. GEORGE, Utah, Oct. 29, 2022 (Gephardt Daily) — A 34-year-old man was arrested after an attempted traffic stop in Washington County turned into a pursuit and a SWAT response.
An officer of the Washington County Sheriff‘s Office was patrolling in Leeds on Thursday when he observed Jorge Sanchez-Diaz on Main Street in a black Dodge Dakota.
“I knew that Jorge did not have a valid driver’s license and that he also had an active warrant for his arrest out of Washington County Justice Court,” the officer wrote in arrest documents.
The officer and his partner followed.
“We turn to initiate a traffic stop and I could see that the vehicle was accelerating at a high rate of speed and continued south bound onto Old Highway 91 towards Harrisburg. The emergency lights were activated and we attempted to catch up to the vehicle. We reached speeds of over 100 miles per hour with our lights activated but we could not catch up to
the vehicle.”
The vehicle turned into the Harrisburg Estates, nearly crashing the vehicle as it
made a left turn at a high rate of speed, the statement says.
“It was obvious that the driver was evading our traffic stop,” the probable cause statement says. The vehicle was found, abandoned.
At 7:12 p.m., dispatch was notified a woman who owned a nearby residence “stated she came home and saw the truck parked there and recognized it to be an acquaintance of her that she only knew by the name Jose that she had met on Facebook.”
“The homeowner opened her front door and called in to see if anyone was inside. She heard a male voice call out that he was inside and that he was sorry. … While speaking to the homeowner she sounded terrified about what had happened and she stated she did not feel safe returning to her home.”
A SWAT team arrived and took Sanchez-Diaz into custody. During an inventory of the Dodge, officials found a burnt marijuana joint and black bag that contained “a yellowish
brown substance in it that I identified to be THC concentrate (DAB).”
Sanchez-Diaz was booked into the Purgatory Correctional Facility on suspicion of:
- Burglary, a second-degree felony
- Failure to stop or respond at the command of police, a third-degree felony
- Reckless driving, a class B misdemeanor
- Possession of controlled substance, marijuana/spice, a class B misdemeanor
Sanchez-Diaz’s bail was set at $10,000. He remained in custody as of Saturday afternoon.
