Pair from Texas arrested after police pursuit
A pair from Texas are being charged with multiple counts of resisting an officer and aggravated fleeing from law enforcement following a Monday night chase that ended with Santa Fe police shocking one of the suspects with a stun gun, according to court documents.
A criminal complaint says officers were dispatched to a Shell station on Cerrillos Road in response to a report that a man was punching a woman in the face. The man and woman drove off in a Dodge Charger with Texas plates, says the complaint, which lists charges against Hanna Dumford, 25, of Marble Falls, Texas.
Another complaint — against Kyle Beauchamp, 27, of San Antonio, Texas, the driver of the Charger — says a Santa Fe police officer tried to pull the vehicle over on Airport Road, but Beauchamp sped away from the officer, cutting off traffic and driving through a stop sign before pulling into the Sierra Vista mobile home park on Zepol Road.
Dumford went to a home in the park and told a woman inside that she and her husband were having problems and asked if they could leave their car in the driveway, according to the complaint against Dumford.
But as officers followed the pair into the neighborhood, the documents say, Beauchamp and Dumford returned to the car, and Beauchamp drove toward several officers, crashing into one of their cruisers and pushing it into a tree.
Beauchamp again fled the scene, the complaint says, and officers chased the Charger to Center Drive, where Beauchamp crashed it into a boulder. The couple ran from the car, both complaints say, but were caught and apprehended. Beauchamp was stunned with a Taser during the ordeal. “Officer [Leonardo] Guzman stated he chased the male onto an elevated deck and that was where he deployed his duty issued taser,” the criminal complaint says. “Officer Guzman stated he went to put the male in handcuffs and the male would not give up his arms.”
Santa Fe Police Lt. Sean Strahon said in an email that police were unable to find any signs that Dumford had been battered by Beauchamp, and both denied that a physical altercation occurred.
Dumford is facing charges of aggravated fleeing from a law enforcement officer, conspiracy to commit aggravated fleeing, and three counts of resisting, evading or obstructing an officer, according to online court records.
Beauchamp is facing 10 charges, including aggravated fleeing, six counts of aggravated assault on a peace officer with a deadly weapon, resisting and evading, leaving the scene of an accident, and possession of a controlled substance after police say they found five small, orange pills on him, which they later identified as clonazepam, a prescription medication to treat anxiety.
A judge set Beauchamp’s bail at $1,000 Tuesday and ordered that he be released with a GPS monitor; Dumford’s bail was set at $500, and the judge ordered her to have no contact with Beauchamp.