A 19-year-old Alcalde man is facing a felony charge of aggravated fleeing an officer after nearly causing a crash in the middle of Española.
Española City Police Officer David Jaramillo charged Ayden Martinez with fourth-degree felony fleeing charge and one count of reckless driving, a petty misdemeanor, around 10:45 a.m. April 19.
Jaramillo wrote in a statement of probable cause for Martinez’s arrest that he was heading to another call when he saw a yellow Ford Mustang at the intersection of Valley Drive and Riverside Drive. As he neared the light, he heard the Mustang driver rev its engine and when the light turned green, it sped off to the south.
Jaramillo turned on his lights and gave chase and the Mustang went faster, passing cars in the median, and as it passed Highway 76, it began to fishtail, almost crashing into other vehicles, before stopping in the median in front of Country Farm Supply, just before Paseo de Oñate on Riverside. He called in the license plate to dispatchers and approached the car.
He ordered Martinez to get out of the car and arrested him. As he started to do an inventory of the car, a man ran up to him and said Martinez almost hit him, as he was trying to turn into the store.
“He advised he slammed on his brakes to avoid being hit,” Jaramillo wrote.
Martinez first allegedly told Jaramillo that he has two jobs and didn’t know he was supposed to work that morning, at the Pizza Hut, he wrote.
“I advised him the Pizza Hut was behind us that he passed it way back,” Jaramillo wrote. “He stated he knew and when I asked then why are we stopped here? He advised me ‘I’m not going to lie I was trying to out run you guys when I saw your lights.’”
Martinez was released on his own recognizance by Rio Arriba Magistrate Judge Joseph Madrid on April 21. A status conference was set for May 14.