A suspect has been brought into police custody after violently backing into a pedestrian and fleeing the scene in the Town Plaza shopping center Thursday.
According to Durango Police Department Deputy Chief Chris Gonzales, the victim of the crash suffered serious injuries after being smashed between two vehicles, a white Chevrolet Suburban and the victim’s pickup truck.
“We got a call of a hit and run where a Suburban violently backed into the back of a truck, pinning the owner of the truck in between and causing significant – and I use the word ‘significant’ lightly – injury to the victim,” Gonzales said. “The Suburban then fled the scene at a high rate of speed, and the victim was too injured to be able to give any eyewitness testimony.”
Gonzales said DPD did not have much to go on at first – just blurry security footage from the nearby Walgreens Pharmacy that captured the entire incident. But, he said, police knew what kind of vehicle they were looking for, and used footage from the citywide Flock surveillance system, a parking complaint and footage from a resident’s Ring doorbell camera to locate and identify the vehicle and its driver.
“Somebody had a Ring door cam, and we were able to get video of the driver getting into the car 30 minutes prior to the incident,” Gonzales said. "From that we were able to figure out where the where the car was registered, and we got an assist from Cortez Police Department, who went and contacted the vehicle, as well as identified the people in the car, and our investigation ended up identifying the driver.“
He said the driver of the Suburban was a juvenile, and therefore he was unable to share any information about their identity. The victim also requested privacy. DPD received a judge-signed arrest warrant for the driver of the Suburban on the grounds of vehicular assault and fleeing the scene of an accident after causing an injury.
“It happened on Aug. 21st at about 11 o’clock in the morning, then we had somebody in custody by 8 o’clock in the morning the next day,” Gonzales said.
He said thanks to surveillance technology, DPD was able to identify the driver.
“The overlying message is that our officers are able to utilize the technology and investigative police work necessary to help identify the suspect and bring both justice and closure for the victim, who would have had no recourse had not the technology been there,” he said. “We probably still wouldn’t have identified the person if it hadn’t been for the technological availability.”
Gonzales said that this kind of accident can be avoided by being aware while driving and following normal traffic laws. If an incident like this does happen, he said, the best thing to do is not run away.
“This is kind of a one off where, generally speaking, if you follow normal driving laws this stuff doesn’t happen,” he said. “This kid accelerated at a high rate of speed directly into the car. There’s no public safety measures you can take to prevent this, other than don't do that.”
sedmondson@durangoherald.com
