High-speed chase ensues after tequila allegedly stolen
A stolen $60 bottle of Don Julio tequila led to a potentially deadly chase on the streets of downtown Santa Fe around 2 a.m. Friday after a man pulled a gun on bartenders, police say.
Steven Sanderson, 32, who is listed on police reports with a Santa Fe address but an Arizona driver’s license, is facing felony charges of aggravated assault, fleeing a law enforcement officer and battery on an officer.
According to a criminal complaint filed Friday in the Santa Fe County Magistrate Court, Sanderson is accused of trying to lift the Don Julio from behind the bar at Evangelo’s on West San Francisco Street, firing shots in the air outside and then driving 80 mph as he tried to get away from Santa Fe police who were pursuing him.
Staff at Evangelo’s told officers Sanderson had snatched the bottle and tried to run away. Two bartenders chased him out onto San Francisco Street, at the Galisteo Street intersection, where he gave the bottle back, the criminal complaint says.
But as the bartenders were walking back to Evangelo’s, they told police, they noticed Sanderson had a gun.
Sanderson fired three shots into the air, the bartenders said, and then pointed the gun at the bar.
Another man tackled the shooter as he was firing a few more shots, and the bartenders managed to escape back into the bar, where people were hiding in a downstairs area called The Underground and in the bathrooms, the complaint says.
Sanderson drove away in a gray Jeep Grand Cherokee, the complaint says, but police quickly caught up with him. According to the court document and police reports, Sanderson drove away from officers at speeds of up to 80 mph with his headlights turned off.
Police deployed a spike strip to stop the SUV by puncturing its tires, but Sanderson kept driving and crashed into the Scottish Rite Center on Bishops Lodge Road, damaging a wall of the building, the complaint says. He then drove toward an officer who was standing outside his vehicle with his weapon drawn, telling Sanderson to stop.
Sanderson eventually surrendered, the complaint says. Police reports say his blood alcohol level registered a 0.10 on a breath test, over the legal limit of 0.08.
When a Santa Fe Police Department sergeant told Sanderson he had nearly killed one of his officers, a police report says, Sanderson grinned and said, “Well he was kind of in my way.”
Sanderson is being held in the Santa Fe County jail and is set for his first appearance in court Monday.