Ledes from the Land of Enchantment

Police: Man arrested, injured woman rescued after apparent abduction, chase | Local News

A Santa Fe man was arrested and an injured woman rescued Monday evening following an incident police say appeared to be a kidnapping that led to a high-speed pursuit on Interstate 25.

Nathanel Bueno Diaz, 22, of Santa Fe, led officers in circles on the interstate and begin traveling in the wrong lanes, prompting officers to shut down lanes in both directions until he was stopped near Algodones, Santa Fe police Deputy Chief Ben Valdez said in a statement late Monday night.

Bueno Diaz faces charges of battery on household member; assault on a peace officer; aggravated assault with a deadly weapon; and resisting, evading or obstructing an officer.

Emergency dispatchers received a call around 5:30 pm reporting a man had dragged a “crying female into a vehicle against her will in the parking lot of TJ Maxx” in a shopping center on Zafarano Drive, Valdez’s statement said.

An officer spotted the vehicle on Airport Road and attempted to stop it, Valdez wrote, but the driver fled onto southbound I-25 with the woman in the passenger seat.

The driver, later identified as Bueno Diaz, got off the interstate at the San Felipe exit, turned around and began traveling northbound toward Santa Fe. He continued to flee to the Waldo exit and then turned around again, heading toward Albuquerque.

“Officers attempted to deploy stop sticks on four occasions, but Mr. Bueno Diaz maneuvered the vehicle around the devices to continue his flight,” Valdez wrote.

When he reached the San Felipe exit again, Bueno Diaz “made the decision to travel southbound in the northbound lane of Interstate 25 towards oncoming traffic,” according to the statement.

“Pursuing police units paralleled the fleeing suspect, staying in the correct lane of travel. Assisting officers stopped all southbound traffic at the San Felipe exit and all northbound traffic 2 miles north of the Bernalillo exit,” the statement continued. “In addition officers traveled ahead of the fleeing vehicle providing notice to any drivers on the roadway.”

New Mexico State Police officers assisting in the operation finally stopped Bueno Diaz using a “pursuit intervention technique,” the statement said.

Valdez said earlier Monday the incident ended around 6:10 pm The woman “was secured,” he said, adding, “She was observed to have injuries from being struck by the male.”

The incident comes 2½ weeks after a similar chase on I-25 turned deadly. Santa Fe police officers pursuing a vehicle they believed was carrying a kidnapping victim followed the car at high speeds into oncoming traffic, leading to a head-on collision that killed Officer Robert Duran and retired firefighter Frank Lovato, and injured two other drivers, including another police officer.

Authorities later said Jeannine Jaramillo, 46, had falsely claimed she was being kidnapped and was the only person in the vehicle when it stopped farther down the highway after sideswiping a truck.

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