Charges filed in Highway 95 shooting
The woman arrested in connection to last week’s shooting on U.S. Highway 95 was formally arraigned in Yuma Justice Court on Tuesday.
Appearing before Justice of the Peace pro-tem Darci Weede, Dorothy Sue Hall was informed that a criminal complaint had been filed against her, charging her with two felony offenses.
Those offenses, Judge Weede continued, are aggravated assault per domestic violence and disorderly conduct per domestic violence.
In addition to appointing the Yuma County Public Defender’s Office to represent her, Judge Weede also scheduled her next court appearance – a preliminary hearing – for 4 p.m. on Nov. 12.
Hall remains in custody at the Yuma County jail on a $100,000 bond. She was also told that if she were to post that bond she was to report to pre-trial services.
According to the Yuma County Sheriff’s Office, at approximately 1 p.m., law enforcement received a report of a female pointing a gun at a man in the area of U.S. Highway 95, north of mile marker 40, and that shots had possibly been fired.
DPS troopers initially responded to the scene and began an investigation. Due to the nature of the incident,
U.S. Highway 95 was shut down in both directions.
DPS then advised Yuma Proving Ground that the incident potentially started on the installation’s property and the individuals involved may have fled on to one of its ranges, which prompted a “lockdown” at the base.
YPG police and Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents were then contacted to assist with searching the area for the individuals involved. Helicopter assistance was provided by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations.
A male and a female, now identified as Hall, were later located by state troopers on foot in the area of U.S. Highway 95 and mile marker 53. Two vehicles, a white Chevrolet van and a white Ford Explorer were also found abandoned in a wash in the same area.
It was at that point DPS then contacted the sheriff’s office to turn over the investigation into the incident, at which time deputies responded and assumed a subsequent investigation.
During the course of YCSO’s investigation, it was discovered that Hall had been driving the white van northbound on U.S. Highway 95, along with a male passenger.
The white Ford Explorer was being driven by a man, who was known to Hall, and he was the only occupant of the vehicle.
While both vehicles were traveling north on U.S. Highway 95, Hall conducted what is known as a “brake check” on the Ford Explorer, causing it to collide with the rear end of her white van.
Both vehicles then stopped along the shoulder of the highway near mile marker 40. Hull then, allegedly brandishing a firearm, got out of the white van, and fired a “warning shot” into the ground within the vicinity of the Ford Explorer.
The driver of the white Ford Explorer, who was still in his vehicle at the time, then immediately drove off, continuing northbound on U.S. Highway 95.
Moments afterward, Hall also continued northbound on the highway before eventually pulling off the shoulder of the roadway to park in a wash in the area of mile marker 53.
At that point she and her male passenger got out of the vehicle and began walking. The driver of the white Ford Explorer saw the van pull off into the wash and then turned around, he said, to confront Hall and her passenger.
Law enforcement units were arriving on the scene by now and Hall, her passenger, and the driver of the Ford Explorer all fled on foot into the desert.
Hall and the driver of the Ford Explorer were located and detained by DPS troopers. Hall’s passenger, however, was picked up by another unknown vehicle and later located in the Town of Quartzsite.
No injuries were observed or reported by any of the individuals involved, and the firearm used in the incident was found in the area of mile marker 45.
Hall was arrested and booked into the Yuma County Detention Center on suspicion of aggravated assault per domestic violence, disorderly conduct per domestic violence, and endangerment per domestic violence.
The two male subjects involved were released. Traffic on Highway 95 was reopened once YCSO Investigators arrived on scene. YPG lifted its “lockdown” and began allowing employees to depart at staggered intervals while the investigation was ongoing.