Huerfano fugitive caught after high speed chase

by Eric Mullens
ALAMOSA — Driving what may have been a former police car, a Huerfano County fugitive was arrested following a high speed chase and car crash in the San Luis Valley Dec. 28.
Brandon King, 25, of Alamosa, was wanted on warrants from Huerfano County on charges of larceny and criminal impersonation as well as charges of kidnapping from Rio Grande County, a failure to appear warrant from Alamosa County and a domestic violence charge filed against him the day before his arrest in that same jurisdiction.
CSP Captain George Dingfelder said King is also a suspect in a string of burglaries and a recent auto theft case. He said state patrol investigators had received information regarding the type of vehicle King was suspected of driving and Valley law enforcement agencies had been on the look out for him and the vehicle for about a week prior to the Wednesday night incident.
A state patrol trooper spotted the vehicle, a 2000 Ford Crown Victoria, at about 5 pm Dec. 28 and made a traffic stop on Alamosa County Road 7. Ironically, the location of the initial traffic contact was near the Valley’s state patrol office. Reports indicate King stopped his vehicle, but then drove off at a high rate of speed heading west out of Alamosa County. King then turned north on CR 100, which is the Alamosa / Rio Grande county line road and pushed the high powered Ford sedan to speeds over 100 miles-per-hour.
Reports say King attempted to ram the state trooper’s vehicle but the trooper performed a tactical vehicle intervention, also know as a PIT maneuver, and spun out the suspect’s car sending it off of the roadway and rolling one and a half times. King fled the vehicle and ran off, but a perimeter had been set up by other law enforcement agencies and King, along with his passenger, 34-year old Mark Turner of Alamosa were taken into custody. King and Turner were treated for minor injuries at San Luis Valley Regional Medical Center in Alamosa and then booked into the Alamosa County Jail.
Additional charges related to the chase are expected to be filed by the state patrol, including felony eluding, attempted second degree assault on a peace officer, resisting arrest and reckless driving.
Turner was arrested for possession of methamphetamines (Class II controlled substance).
Dingfelder said, “The vehicle King was driving was a 2000 Ford Crown Victoria with spotlights on the side. It looked like a police car, very much like the ones we drive. We have been in contact with the registered owner of the vehicle and it may have been stolen”.
The investigation continues and Dingfelder said additional arrests may be made in the near future.
The state patrol was aided in the chase and capture of King and Turner by personnel from the US Bureau of Land Management, Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife, Alamosa and Rio Grande sheriff’s offices and the Monte Vista Police Department.