A 42-year-old Torrington man remains in critical and stable condition in a Denver hospital Tuesday after a chase through two Nebraska counties that ended with him being shot by pursuing law enforcement officers.
Victor Martinez was shot at least once Friday evening after leading multiple law enforcement agencies on a chase that began with an attempted traffic stop, Nebraska State Patrol spokesman Cody Thomas told Cowboy State Daily.
The pursuit started in Scotts Bluff County east of the Wyoming-Nebraska border and lasted about 20 minutes before ending near the intersection of South 5 and South E roads in Sioux County to the north, he said.
What prompted the attempted traffic stop, how fast the pursuit got to, and whether Martinez was armed isn’t included in the preliminary information available, Thomas said.
He added that the Nebraska State Patrol (NSP) is investigating at the request of the Sioux County Attorney’s Office.
It’s standard procedure for a neutral agency to investigate officer-involved shootings, he said.
How many times Martinez was shot wasn’t available at publication time, but the Nebraska State Patrol reports a Scotts Bluff County deputy and a Mitchell Police Department officer fired their weapons.
No law enforcement officers were hurt in the confrontation.
Calls to prosecutors in Sioux and Scotts Bluff counties about what charges Martinez may face weren’t returned by the time this story was published, nor had calls to the Scotts Bluff County sheriff and the chief of the Mitchell Police Department.
“The driver was transported to Regional West Hospital in Scottsbluff in critical condition and has since been flown to a hospital in Denver for additional treatment,” the NSP report says.
“The investigation is in the early stages and remains ongoing.”
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information is available.
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
