Man Accused In Wild High-Speed Chase Was Wanted In Texas
AURORA, Colo. (CBS4) - Police say the man accused of leading officers on a high-speed chase across eastern Colorado had been on the run from Texas since July 7 and had been involved in an assault and domestic violence case.
The chase started on Interstate 70 in Limon and hit speeds topping 100 miles per hour. It ended with a crash on the interstate just east of E-470.
The high-speed pursuit was highlighted by the Texas man, identified as Samuel Aguirre-Vasquez, tossing beer bottles out of his company's pickup while he was driving. At one point police say Aguirre-Vasquez tossed a bottle that hit a deputy's vehicle. The chase ended about three hours after his wild ride began.
A Colorado Department of Transportation camera showed police pointing guns at Aguirre-Vasquez.
"He threw out about six bottles and there's a bunch of empty beer bottles in there so he didn't chuck them all out," Lincoln County Undersheriff Gordon Nall said.
Toby Williamson, a trucker from Arvada, saw Aguirre-Vasquez earlier near the Kansas border.
"(He) was driving real erratically, weaving in and out of traffic, cutting them off, flipping the bird, and passing people on the shoulder of the road," Williamson said.
Police blamed him for three accidents, sideswiping an unoccupied car on the side of I-70. Another car had a Kansas City family heading to Frisco.
"All of a sudden, noise, the gold truck sideswipes us on the left, goes around us on the left-hand shoulder, took out our mirror and rubbed our side and thankfully we kept control," driver Scott Perry said.
Adams County tried to rein him in with stop-sticks.
"There was three attempts to stop-stick him at this point. All three attempts failed," Nall said.
The last collision caused another vehicle to rollover and that's what stopped his pickup. It was transported back to Lincoln County.
Aguirre-Vasquez faces multiple felony charges in Lincoln County. The vehicle is owned by a Texas construction company, but when the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office contacted the owner, the owner did not realize his truck was gone. The owner says Aguirre-Vasquez was an employee.
Nobody suffered serious injuries.
