A red pickup barreled beneath a bridge with patrol cars screaming after it, as a woman watching and filming from the roadside cycled from disbelief to cheering on the chase.
“Oh my god! Oh my gosh!” says Shaina Fields Pulley in a cellphone video of the pursuit she posted to social media. "Holy f*** me ... what the f***!?" "
The pickup blasts by stop sticks, narrowly avoiding them.
Bruno Mars’ jaunty “doo-doo-doo” becomes a rallying cry as four police SUVs and a truck tear after the rogue pickup.
“Go get ’em boys!” she calls. “Go get him.”
They got him.
Jonis Mencia-Cruz is now facing property destruction, eluding, reckless driving and interference charges after a Thursday pursuit that topped 100 mph, tore through Laramie and continued at more than 90 mph with a front tire gone.
An Albany County Sheriff’s Office affidavit says the pickup kept going on its rim before the pursuit ended with a broken cattle gate, a wreck and a foot chase along Roger Canyon Road.
Mencia-Cruz made his initial appearance Friday before Circuit Judge Robert Sanford. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.
Spotted By A Camera
The chase began with a camera sighting across the Colorado line.
Around 5:15 p.m. Thursday, Sgt. Aaron Gallegos received a dispatch alert about a stolen red 1999 Chevrolet Silverado heading north toward Wyoming on U.S. Highway 287.
A Flock camera spotted the pickup traveling north from Fort Collins, Albany County Sheriff’s Sgt. Daran Olaveson wrote. The truck bore Arizona plates.
Gallegos drove south to look for it. Eight minutes later, he found the Silverado parked in a truck pullout near milepost 405.
The sergeant radioed dispatch, stepped out of his patrol vehicle and ordered the driver to get out of the pickup.
Instead, the truck took off north, Olaveson wrote.
Gallegos pursued with his emergency lights and siren activated, reporting speeds above 100 mph.
Ahead of them, law enforcement officers prepared stop sticks near the intersection of U.S. 287 and Soldier Springs Road.
‘Did Not Work’
The woman’s roadside video captures a slice of the pursuit.
“Rumble strips … did not work,” she says as the pickup races by and out of view.
The affidavit reports that they were successfully used. Their effect became clear farther into the pursuit.
The pickup continued into Laramie, allegedly running stop signs and red lights and passing vehicles in the opposing lane.
Olaveson traced its route along U.S. 287 and Third Street, east onto Garfield Street, then north on Ninth Street toward Roger Canyon Road.
Near Ninth and Beaufort streets, Gallegos watched the pickup lose its front driver’s side tire.
It “continued driving on its rim,” Olaveson wrote.
Even then, the truck reportedly kept traveling at more than 90 mph.
Olaveson wrote that he participated in the pursuit and deployed a tire-deflation device against the pickup.
A Gate, A Wreck And A Run
The chase continued onto Roger Canyon Road, where the pickup went through a cattle gate near milepost 11 and crashed near milepost 11.5, the affidavit says.
The driver allegedly climbed out and ran north from the road and the wrecked truck — valued at between $1,500 and $3,800.
Wyoming Highway Patrol troopers and Albany County deputies caught him and arrested him.
Gallegos reported that Mencia-Cruz was the pickup’s only occupant. After taking his name and birth date, the sergeant asked dispatch to check his information.
The response flagged him as a wanted person with a caution for escape risk and nationwide extradition through the Colorado Department of Corrections.
The sheriff’s office later described the outstanding warrant as one for “flight/escape.”
Cowboy State Daily sought information from the Colorado Department of Corrections about Mencia-Cruz’s fugitive warrant but did not receive a response before publication.
Gallegos checked the pickup’s vehicle identification number and confirmed through the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office that it had been reported stolen.
If convicted on all charges, Mencia-Cruz could spend 12 years behind bars.
Kolby Fedore can be reached at kolby@cowboystatedaily.com.
