A woman camping near Silverton was arrested last week on suspicion of firing a gun during a verbal altercation with a couple.

Valerie Lynn Wells, 62, of Bosque Farms, New Mexico, was booked July 18 in the La Plata County Jail on suspicion of menacing with a deadly weapon, a felony, and prohibited use of a firearm, a misdemeanor.

Before her arrest, the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office released photos of Wells and her Toyota Tacoma taken around 8 p.m. Monday. The Sheriff’s Office asked for the public’s help in locating her.

In an arrest affidavit, Adam Clifton, an officer with the Sheriff’s Office, wrote that he was contacted about 8:30 p.m. Monday and met with Matthew Miller and Amanda DeMello. The couple showed Clifton a video they had taken of a woman, later identified as Wells in Cunningham Gulch, northeast of Silverton.

The video described in the affidavit depicted Wells discharging a firearm during a verbal altercation. Wells allegedly fired the weapon away from the couple but over a road that “was being traveled by a family, as shown in the video.”

Sheriff Bruce Conrad made no specific comments about the incident itself.

“I would like to thank the community for its help as the woman sought by the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office has been arrested and charged with Felony Menacing with a Deadly Weapon,” he said in a written statement to The Durango Herald.

DeMello declined to comment about the incident.

rschafir@durangoherald.com