Excerpted from: ERRI EMERGENCY SERVICES REPORT-EmergencyNet NEWS Service-Saturday, May 30, 1998-Vol. 2 - 150
CORTEZ, COLORADO (EmergencyNet News) - Law enforcement officers are looking for three gunmen who shot and killed a policeman and wounded two deputies during a stolen vehicle chase on Friday. The Colorado National Guard was being used in the manhunt to sweep an area with night scoping equipment.
Police said 45-year-old Dale Claxton was fatally shot in his patrol car in Cortez as he tried to stop a truck stolen from an oil rig site 25 miles to the east in La Plata County. Montezuma County deputy sheriff Jason Bishop and sheriff's detective Todd Martin were shot and wounded during the chase. Both were listed in stable condition at an area hospital.
According to police, the chase started at about 0930 MDT and continued into the afternoon through a maze of narrow county roads in the rugged Four Corners region until the suspects abandoned the truck. The suspects were reportedly unprepared for a long hike, without adequate food and water. The search is focused on rugged country near Cross Canyon in extreme western Montezuma County, not far from the Colorado-Utah line.
ERRI MORNING NEWS SUMMARY
CORTEZ, COLORADO (EmergencyNet News) - An FBI night search plane, National Guard helicopters and more than 150 state and federal officers searched for three gunmen in the area near where Colorado, Arizona, Utah and New Mexico meet. The camouflage-clad men killed a police officer during a traffic stop and then wounded two more during a running gun battle. Cortez Police Chief Roy Lane said there were no sightings of the suspects but the search will continue "until we either know they're not in the area or we catch them."
CORTEZ, COLORADO (EmergencyNet News) - Police said on Monday that they received information on the identities of the three men suspected of killing a police officer in Cortez four days ago. Nearly 150 officers were still out on foot, in helicopters and in cars combing the stark canyon lands near Colorado's Mesa Verde National Park for the three male suspects, described as white, heavily-armed and wearing camouflage clothing.
Police tracking dogs have been stymied because of heat. FBI helicopters equipped with infrared tracking devices that zero in on body heat are also being hampered by the high temperatures.
NATIONAL LAW ENFORCEMENT NEWS
CORTEZ, COLORADO (EmergencyNet News) - Law enforcement officers said they found pipe bombs while searching the belongings of three fugitives who are suspected of killing a police officer and wounding two sheriff's deputies last week. The suspects have been identified as 30-year-old Alan Pilon, Robert Matthew Mason and John Wayne McVean, both 26.
Police said they found three pipe bombs in Pilon's camper and two more in Mason's pickup truck near Durango. The bombs were described as being 8 to 12 inches long and 3 inches in diameter. They were detonated by a bomb squad.
Despite a massive manhunt, searchers have found only two sets of footprints. FBI SWAT teams have joined the search, and National Guard troops are expected to be on hand soon.
ERRI MORNING NEWS SUMMARY
BLUFF, UTAH (EmergencyNet News) - Police are still searching for two of three fugitives suspected of killing a Colorado police officer last week. Officials say one of the men was found dead in southeastern Utah on Thursday. Sheriff Mike Lacy of San Juan County said the two remaining fugitives are heavily armed. The hunt started after Cortez, Colorado, police officer Dale Claxton was shot and killed last Friday when he stopped what he suspected was a stolen water truck. The search for the three, Robert Mason, 26, Alan Pilon, 30, and Jason McVean, 26, shifted to Utah from Colorado after a police officer in Utah was wounded.
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BLUFF, UTAH (EmergencyNet News) - Authorities say two survivalists suspected of killing one police officer and wounding two others have been cornered in a canyon in the Utah wilderness. A third suspect was killed, apparently after shooting himself and leaving pipe bombs attached to his body.
Scores of law enforcement officers, including National Guard troops and SWAT teams, have converged on area of southeast Utah, not far from the Four Corners area. The manhunt began last Friday in Colorado, after a police officer Dale Claxton was fatally shot in a hail of automatic weapons fire in Cortez, located 50 miles east of the Utah location.
On Thursday, Kelly Bradford, a San Juan County sheriff's deputy, was shot as he checked a report that a camouflage-clad gunman had fired at a social worker. The 35-year-old Bradford was reported to be in serious condition at a Colorado hospital.
The 300 residents in the town of Bluff were evacuated after Bradford was shot near the San Juan River. Found 300 yards away was the camouflage-clad body of 26-year-old Robert Matthew Mason, one of the three men wanted in Claxton's murder. Authorities did not know if Mason had shot Bradford. Mason appeared to have shot himself in the head. A bomb squad was called to remove the pipe bombs.
The governor of Colorado mobilized 200 National Guard troops Wednesday to join 300 law enforcement officers from four states who have been searching for the fugitives.
Bradford was shot after a state Division of Family Services social worker encountered a man dressed in camouflage clothing and carrying a high-powered rifle.
(c) Copyright, EmergencyNet NEWS Service, 1998. All Rights Reserved. Redistribution without permission is prohibited by law.
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